(Barbados Nation) A call has been made for all CARICOM immigrants in Barbados to get their status regularised in light of there being over 2 000 non-nationals in the island’s school system, 227 of whom sat last month’s Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance (11-Plus) Exam.
Minister of Education Ronald Jones said on Friday these students were in the system because they had been “granted some kind of status”, and therefore adult non-nationals should follow suit.
“We have over 2 000 persons in the school system and they don’t have to run and hide because they have the appropriate status,” he said during a Press conference at the ministry’s Elsie Payne Complex to announce the exam results.
“Obviously their parents are within the process allowed within the system . . . . Come forward without penalty and be regularised so that you can enjoy the social benefits of Barbados,” he urged.
Jones added it was a positive aspect of Barbados that teachers “don’t see status, but see students, and work with all”, noting that many people didn’t seem to understand the strategy or philosophy behind a Barbadian system that wanted CARICOM nationals to have proper status.
“Obviously their parents are within the process allowed within the system……” The down side of this is that there may be many children of undocumented Caricom nationals out there who are being kept away from school,as to try to send them to school may expose the status of the children.
Certainly not fair to the children.