Government apologises over IDB administered test in Barbados

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados government has joined the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in apologising for the controversy that has erupted over a survey administered to children in the secondary school system that has offended many citizens.

Education, Technological and Vocational Training Minister, Kay McConney said “we accept our responsibility … for this unfortunate situation”.

Last week, the IDB expressed regret that a survey it administered to children in the Barbados secondary school system had offended many citizens, saying it sincerely apologises, but no offence was intended.

“The questions at the centre of concern, to which the Ministry of Education had objected prior to the administering of the survey and which were inadvertently left in the paper, have been removed,” the IDB said, adding that it recognises its position as a development partner with the Barbados government “with a long and mutually respectful relationship”.

It said it wanted to assure “Barbadians it would not deliberately engage in any practice that would harm that relationship”.

First-form students at five of the island's secondary schools had to complete a survey last Monday, as part of a Computer Science test. The survey included invasive questions that many have argued have infringed on the students' right to privacy.

McConney, told a news conference Saturday that even though the government had previously accepted an apology from the IDB the ministry in the end held responsibility for the island's students.

“I want to state that the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational training … we accept our responsibility for the mistakes that have been made in the execution of the pre-test.

“I know that this Ministry must take responsibility for not having checked back well enough to make sure that what we asked to be removed was actually removed, and because I am the minister with responsibility for this ministry, the buck stops with me, and I therefore accept responsibility on behalf of the Ministry that I lead for this unfortunate situation.”

McConney said that she herself knew nothing about the survey before last Tuesday, when Chief Education Officer, Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw, called her during the sitting of Parliament to inform her that news of the controversial questions in the test had started to reach ministry officials, and that subsequently, and investigation into the matter had begun.

President of the main opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and university lecturer, Dr Ronnie Yearwood joined in questioning the rationale behind McConney's silence during the controversy.

“It's ridiculous at this point that we are hounding and literally every parent in this country is asking the minister to respond and you have a minister who has been elected by the people of this country and is failing to do a simple task, come and have a conversation and explain what is the purpose of this test,” he told a news conference on Saturday.

But the minister denied she was silent or throwing other Ministry officials into the fire to answer questions on her behalf, saying she was in deep talks and consultations behind the scenes.

“I had the choice to either rush to the press, or to rush and understand exactly what happened and rush to action. I choose instead of rushing to the press, to rush to action. I took the time to listen to the very valid concerns of parents and other Barbadians; I felt the fury and I felt your outrage and I understand it,” she said.

“I recognise that the Ministry apologising is not enough, that the Inter-American Bank apologising is not enough, that even though the Prime Minister of Barbados condemned the questions in her presentation yesterday, that too is not enough… this situation calls for clear action that will not just address some of the immediate hurt that has happened, but will also put this ministry on a footing to be able to do better going forward.”

She said a number of steps have been taken in response to the controversy, including the setting up of a committee to be charged with developing data collection and ethics policies for educational institutions, the consultants involved in the survey no longer being able to associate with the project, as well as the survey type questions being halted in schools until the data and ethics policy is finalised.

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