Barbados continues to have an exemplary academic record according to the island’s serving Minister of Education…

Ronald Jones, MP for Christ Church East Central and a member of the Freundel Stuart Cabinet, was responding to a question from The Bajan Reporter if this country still has a 99 per cent literacy rate.

Mr Jones was a guest in Warrens at the launch of Flow’s study aid for Barbadian youth known as “Flow Study,” he added he would be hosting a separate press briefing examining Barbados’ academic prowess for the last 23 years.

This was the same Education Minister, who, in January 2015 at the launch of Axcel Finance’s Mentorship programme, lamented the behavior of certain teenaged pupils caught brawling on video in social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook which also drew police attention. He pondered the discipline levels of the Barbadian student at that moment.

In August 2013, the Ministry of Finance in an effort to streamline expenses for Government, revised the University of the West Indies tuition structure and required students to pay for their tertiary education – a move which saw approximate enrollments of 9,000 dwindle to just above 4,000 in both 2014 and 2015.