Curaçao will have a new Minister of Education. It remains to be seen whether education should be happy with this minister.
The upcoming new minister comes from the financial world and currently works for trust / banking giant Citco. This newly appointed Minister of Education has no connection with education and, apart from his own school career, never had any connection with education.
When will politics finally open its eyes? Politics always pretends that education is important for the future of Curaçao. Youth is the future. But politics is closing its eyes to the reality of education for our young people on Curaçao.
Education in Curaçao is not going well at all. Curaçao is dealing with more than 9,000 dropouts. Will this new minister take care of the dropouts? The connection of successful VSBO students to HAVO is far from successful. The Dutch of the average VSBO student is seriously insufficient to be able to follow a follow-up study. The unequal opportunities for pupils at the different FO schools must be eliminated.
Poorly performing FO schools have been determining the future fate of the children who attend these schools for years.
Furthermore, education in Curaçao has been struggling with serious shortcomings for years. After six years, a large group of students in primary education does not sufficiently master the basic skills of reading, writing and math to complete primary education.
I cannot imagine that this new Minister of Education will consider the above and other matters. The entire educational issue will certainly open his eyes. This matter is completely different from dealing with numbers and money.
I want to remind you that Curaçao will once again have a minister who is not from Education. Over the past decade we have been able to see where this decision has led. When will politicians finally realize that the portfolio must be filled in by the right person?
It is unclear why the political party PAR is appointing a new minister just now, four months before the elections. A separate Minister of Education no longer makes much difference to the current government period. The money that is saved can be better spent on extra lessons for students who have been left behind by corona.
Marulla Chirino is a political leader in Curaçao
