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Weekly Current, 28 March 2021

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28 March 2021

Weekly Current (archived version)

Exiting teachers give feedback on the public school system. Candidates debate education issues. New inspection report out. Results from interprimary and intersecondary sports meets. UCCI goes online for the summer. And more!

Welcome to this week’s newsletter on education in the Cayman Islands.

(Click here to sign up for our email list.)

Week In Review

Teacher’s voices tend to be a missing component in the big conversation about education in the Cayman Islands. Particularly in the public school system, teachers are often reluctant to go ‘on the record’ to share their thoughts (critical or positive) due to concerns over employment, immigration, and relationships with students, families and colleagues.

That’s why we obtained exit interviews of public school teachers who left the system in the past 5 years. Here are a couple of headline quotes:

“In my experience, morale is quite low amongst educators within schools. Many teachers do not feel heard and feel frustrated by decisions made that do not positively impact our students or do not reap long-term benefits. They feel overworked and under-appreciated. Many express their desire to leave but feel trapped by the pay and benefits.”

— Primary school teacher, leaving in 2020 after 3 years due to stress

“It’s a good environment with people devoted to bettering the children of our islands.”

— Teacher leaving in 2019 after 8 months to continue graduate education

The Current submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Education Services, which provided 44 exit interviews from the yeas 2016-2020, with personal details redacted.

(Our request is an update of a 2016 project from the Cayman Compass.)

Unlike in 2016, teachers weren’t complaining about serious physical violence or rogue students roaming campuses.

In this more recent set of records, however, many teachers expressed concerns about stress, bureaucratic frustrations, low morale among colleagues, and poor communication between different levels of the system’s hierarchy.

On the flip side, teachers generally said they were grateful for their experience in Cayman and celebrated the relationships they built with students and fellow staff members.

For example:

“Decisions affecting schools need to include feedback from teachers and members of staff currently working in schools. Decisions seem to be made without any communication or feedback, which makes the new policies very ineffective.”

— Teacher leaving in 2020 after 6 years

And:

“Morale seems quite low at my school. Teachers are friendly and mostly supportive of one another. It is a challenging place to be a teacher.”

— Teacher leaving in 2018 after one year

But also:

“At the present time, I think that employee morale is high. My School Leader is very positive and encouraging to all staff members.”

— John Gray teacher leaving in 2020 after 26 years

And finally:

“I would appreciate if this was forwarded to the appropriate member of the ministry and an acknowledgement given in order for this exit interview to have an impact — otherwise what is the point of it?”

— Teacher leaving in 2018 after 2 years

(Read our story on teacher exit interviews here.)

Back on the campaign trail, education continues to be highlighted as a key issue in forums hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, and debates aired on Cayman Crosstalk.

This week’s spotlight is on George Town and West Bay.

***Editor’s Note: As we track candidates’ statements in forums and other venues, we’re compiling a comprehensive ‘report card’ containing candidates’ positions on education. Stay tuned …***

George Town North

  • Joey Hew (incumbent)
    • “We’ve been doing a tremendous amount of work in education.”
    • Highlighted teacher pay raise, new national curriculum and vocational programmes
    • Said public schools are taking the “first step” toward a UK-academy style of system, empowering school boards and principals
    • Supported idea of reintegration, but said it isn’t physically possible right now due to lack of space in public and private schools
  • Johann Moxam
    • Public education is “woefully inadequate“
    • Supports new governance model that “takes away the politics of education”
    • Annual $5,000 scholarship to every Caymanian student to subsidise education costs
    • “A more successful education system in Cayman is where there’s no segregation based on income or nationality, and one where the public school system is regarded as equally good or better than the private school system.”

(Read our story on the Chamber of Commerce’s George Town North candidates forum here.)

West Bay South

  • Raul Nicholson-Coe
    • “Reintegrate the schools immediately“
    • STEM programmes in every school from Kindergarten to high school
  • Andre Ebanks
    • Start off the reintegration process gradually through public-private partnerships to create small schools
    • Create an independent authority to govern school system

(Read our story on the Chamber of Commerce’s West Bay South candidates forum here.)

West Bay North

  • Bernie Bush (incumbent)
    • Higher education (and A Levels) should be free to every Caymanian
    • Local colleges/universities should not be merged
  • Rolston Anglin
    • Revive database of Caymanian scholarship recipients to connect them with jobs upon graduation
    • Each local college/university has its own role to play

(Read our story on the Chamber of Commerce’s West Bay North candidates forum here.)

West Bay Central

  • Eugene Ebanks (incumbent)
    • The biggest challenge facing public schools is the “misconception” they are weaker than private schools
    • Eliminate segregation in public schools
    • Concerned about drug use and student safety
  • Katherine Ebanks-Wilks
    • Deficiencies in public schools must be addressed from foundational stages
    • Increase the starting age for Grade 1, from 5 years old to 6 years old
    • Supports reintegration, but public school capacity is limited
    • Implement anti-bullying legislation within 100 days of election

(Read our story on the Chamber of Commerce’s West Bay Central candidates forum here.)

George Town West

  • Ellio Solomon
    • “Buildings don’t teach kids, and we have proven that.”
    • Work to amend segregation in public schools
  • David Charles Wight (incumbent), Pearlina McGaw-Lumsden, Kenrick Webster
    • Did not appear on Cayman Crosstalk debate

(Read our story on Cayman Crosstalk’s George Town West candidates debates here.)

George Town Central

  • Kenneth Bryan (incumbent)
    • School system isn’t the issue; lack of support for parents is
    • Create free after-school programmes with specialist support
    • Direct students from younger ages into vocational training
  • Frank Cornwall
    • Did not appear on Cayman Crosstalk debate

(Read our story on Cayman Crosstalk’s George Town Central candidates debate here.)

George Town South

  • Barbara Conolly (incumbent)
    • Did not appear on Cayman Crosstalk debate
  • Alric Lindsay
    • Split high school into two tracks, one toward a vocational diploma and one toward an academic diploma

(Read our story on Cayman Crosstalk’s George Town South candidates debate here.)

West Bay West

  • McKeeva Bush (incumbent)
    • Did not attend the Chamber of Commerce forum
  • Mario Ebanks
    • Address bullying and misbehaviour
    • Greater support for teachers
    • Reintegrate public schools

(Read our story on the Chamber of Commerce’s West Bay West candidates forum here.)

Cayman Brac West & Little Cayman

  • Moses Kirkconnell (incumbent)
    • Did not attend the Chamber of Commerce forum
  • Maxine McCoy-Moore
    • End ‘social promotion’
    • Greater focus on practical life skills
    • Different schools for children with different abilities

(Read our story on the Chamber of Commerce’s Cayman Brac West & Little Cayman candidates forum here.)

The Chamber of Commerce is wrapping up its candidates forums. Here is the remainder of the schedule:

  • 29 March – George Town Central
  • 30 March – George Town South
  • 31 March – George Town West
  • 6 April – George Town East

(Visit the Chamber’s website to see a calendar of the forums.)

And a final word from the land of politics: On Saturday night the Progressives published their 2021 Manifesto. We skimmed through it this morning and pulled out some highlights from their education platform including:

  • Every public school rated ‘Good’ or better by 2025
  • New school governance arrangements (introduce governing bodies with their own delegated responsibilities to all Cayman’s schools)
  • Improve primary school facilities and plan for new primary school space as demand increases
  • Create a new high school on Cayman Brac

(See our Facebook post for a link to the Manifesto. We’ll follow up with more reporting this week.)

More from the Current:

Around The Web

The Current is a central resource for education journalism by others, including regional and international news relevant to Cayman education. (Find our running collection of links here.)

The Week Ahead

  • Candidates’ education platforms
  • Chamber of Commerce candidate forums
  • FOI response: student exclusions
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