Advancement in education a sign BVI locals can control own affairs
Minister of Education Dr Natalio Wheatley said the advancement of education in the territory is an indication that local representatives of the Virgin Islands can be in control of their own affairs.
Speaking at the groundbreaking and contract signing ceremony for the redevelopment of the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) campus, Dr Wheatley said it took local representatives, including H Lavity Stoutt and other ministers, to bring comprehensive education to everyone in the territory.
“You have to ask yourself why before we had our own ministers of government, we never had the opportunity to have comprehensive education,” Dr Wheatley said.
“You know as well as I know that before the late great Lavity Stoutt and other ministers came to government with their ministerial authority that a lot of things were not happening for us but when they took the helm and they had the opportunity to exercise their ministerial authority you saw buildings being built, schools being built, from east to west, from Anegada to Jost Van Dyke,” the education minister continued.
He noted that people should reflect on that whenever someone suggests that the Virgin Islands is better off when local representatives are not in control of the territory’s affairs.
Dr Wheatley mentioned that when Lavity Stoutt became the territory’s first Chief Minister, he also became the first Education Minister as well.
“In 1968, he introduced comprehensive education. That means all the time before only a handful of individuals had the opportunity to get secondary education. It was not a right extended to all the people of the Virgin Islands,” the minister said.
“You would have to ask yourself why in the existence of the Virgin Islands we had not had the opportunity to not have comprehensive education before that. I want you to reflect on that,” he continued.
Dr Wheatley also said he wants to leave a legacy that he contributed to education in the territory by bringing home the students from the makeshift ESHS Pasea Estate campus and back to the original Lower Estate Campus.
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Without reading what it said, if young locals not being given a chance to excel, how is the Territory going to advance?
There are more foreigners working here than locals. BVIslanders are to be blamed for this nonsense.
Bvi islander are lazy and doesn’t like to do hard labour that is the #1 reason why the island have expats,how many bvi islander do you see on a construction work site?
If we have to go on construction site then we would have no use for you..smh
Listen Please – Your Success is ALL Up to you – Spend time Doing Your JOB to make Things Better. You Shine and It Will FOLLOW
Advancement in education?
This guy as done absolutely nothing to make any progress in education in the BVI.
Locally educated individuals lack a lot of knowledge.
Yes Dr. Wheatley can make LAWS but YOU Don’t SPEND TIME Challenging him – You do your Duty and come on Board to Make it Work – Stop judging as usually. Dr. N. Wheatley did not get in his position but to be in the game to be on TOP of his class with a Great Vision. Be quiet and you challenge YOU for the betterment of the BVI. You Achieve – Work Hard and Help for the again for the Success of ALL!!
You are very ignorant. If it is one thing per Capita BVIslanders are highly educated. Most receive their teritiary education from top institution regionally and internationally.
Rifght, totally agree that Lavity Stoutt and his cohort did a briilliant thing to bring wider education opportunities to the local population as whole. Good times.
But now, YOU need to look forward and recognise that times have changed and YOU are NOT doing enough to provide the population with an education to enable them to survive and thrive in the volatile, uncertain, complex and amibiguous world we live in today.
Please please please come up with a transparent, deliverable strategy to update the education syllabus, the methods of teaching and learning, and the infrastrausture to support all this.
I am not from the BVI but do have an interest in seeing it do well. I hope the voters do recognise this need as a crticial step on the path to the future.
Please Do NOT Let your Ignorance SHOW – Be a TRUE BVI-lander. Open Up your EYES – Open Up yours EYES. There is GOLD up in those HILLs. Figure of speech – Put in the HARD Work Necessary – Make It A Success therefore you can benefit from it ALL
(:
I Hear you – If you are UNHAPPY with the BVI then go back home to your Islands and make ALL your Comments to That Government. Be critical in your HOME LAND and See what you GET!!. Big Shot – Big Mouth – Not Needed Here. Hard Work will take you places. STOP COMPLAINING – DO SOMETHING – ANYTHING – Make A Difference. – Shut your MOUTH
1st class lunatic. Just a bunch of bla bla bla bla.
That Dr. Wheatley wants his legacy to be that he brought students back to the Lower Estate campus is disappointing. Stop trying to convince us that basic rights are something to be celebrated.
Parents and students deserve a world-class education system and facility given the size of the budget compared with the population. Excuse after excuse and recounting the past means we need a new minister.
NDP was far worse- empty talk- done zero for the BVI so zip it: left to the NDP the por kids would be doing their lessons at the Sunday Morning Well while their own kids go to Cedars
Thanks to the NDP and their negotiations, funding and plans that were left in place before they were kicked out of office by you voting idiots the VIP can brag on the rebuilding of the schools. STFU!
What advancement in education? Why did it take 5 years to start fixing schools post Irma? Much faster to fund putting a/c in sports complex. What does that tell you about govt priorities? What percentage of school students go on to tertiary education? How much of the national budget is ear marked for education? The Territory long ago abdicated its responsibility to young people.
Is this man living on another planet? When you have graduates from the high school who cannot write an email using the correct grammar and punctuation – and I’m not talking about anything complicated – just basic capital letters, periods and new paragraphs. Nowhere else in the first world could an 18 year old graduate and be unable to write in correct sentences. Our education system needs support, funding and a group of people who CARE behind it before we can ever make such statements – the entire ministry needs an overhaul because they are NOT doing their jobs. Yes we may now have education for the masses, but without a quality education we have nothing to brag about.
So after High Scool,in order to have a reasonable chance of College acceptance somewhere,, mI st graduates first go to the Community College for some learning.
And of those who do scrape by and go to College,to what Colleges are they admitted?
Boasting about BVI great education,falls flat u n less qualityollege acceptance rate and name of Colleges are evident.Wouldn’t it be a proud moment if a list of the Colleges acceptances was published yearly.With an impressive ,listing there would be no need for pleading with businesses to donate 60 grand a year. National athletic achievements are displayed so why not the National Education achievements?
Puppet for sale, a few strings missing but still able to stand up and lick a microphone like an ice-cream
that was really funny ? ah tell aryo that guy is AH BIG youth (dr) ? 4 he self maybe
Ok,,, how’s that going?
To say but… this whole ‘education system’ is not advanced and has not been for some time. Myron made it appear so in a way with fancy talk but was a hoax then too. Sad
Man give Myron his jacket. Stop being a hater!
as a blogger brought to light ( how come none of government ministers who has ( Dr ) added to their names has been appointed to be minister
of HEALTH ? and look who they put ( M alone ?) we really IN trouble / seriously speaking
Dr. Doesn’t mean you know medicine. It means you’ve got a specific grade from the university.
Don’t talk about stuff you know nothing about. Thanks.
This guy always pushing that independence talk in a smart way. If only he had paid much more attention to education than wanting self governance.