Director: New education bill in the works

Director: New education bill in the works
Marcellus Taylor

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A top education official said yesterday that the country’s educational system has been strengthened as a result of having to adapt to challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing that a new bill to govern the education sector will soon be put out for public consultation.

Education director Marcellus Taylor addressed the Grand Bahama Business Outlook yesterday.

“Are we a strengthened education system because of this crisis, I would say yes. We were able to test the system and the system was able to survive. We were able to test the system’s flexibility and responsiveness to this crisis. We came up with methods and with ways of conducting education so that if we have similar challenges we can adapt so that education is not significantly disrupted. We are gaining confidence. As we use these virtual learning strategies, teach in the hybrid mode, or develop locally-based resources we see teachers getting more comfortable with the content they are putting out. The quality of the content is improving and students are adjusting to the different modalities and many are doing well to take advantage of the opportunities.”

Taylor noted that the Department of Education is doing its part to develop policies and procedures to ‘fill the gap’ in light of the circumstances created by the pandemic.

“One of the things we are doing is we are in the final stages of putting forth a new bill to govern the educational sector and that will be coming out shortly for public consultation and commentary,” he said.