By
Nathan ‘Jolly’ Green, May 26, 2020.

It is
'A' typical for left-wing leaders, more so those with Marxist
tendencies to use emotive projects to stay in power. Education,
low-cost or free social housing, and exceptional medical facilities
are usually what they choose to fool the electorate into thinking
they are God sent messengers.

In
Venezuela, Hugo Chavez promised free University for everyone. He
promised to build 10,000 social houses a year, but the most he ever
achieved was 1,500 and some years just a few hundred, or none. Since
president Maduro arrived, no houses built, the hospital system has
collapsed, and the universities are closed. He really is among the
asshole class of politicians, and there are many of them in the
Caribbean.

In the
late 1990s, the National Democratic Party [NDP] took up an offer from
the World Bank to reorganize the education system in SVG. The World
Bank project was called 'Education for All.'

The NDP
negotiated and agreed on terms of engagement in the project; there
was a project lead time of about two years.

Dr Ralph
E Gonsalves came to power and found that the country was on the cusp
of starting the project. He looked at it, decided to continue with
it, but renamed it 'The Education Revolution.' No mention of the
World Bank, who were the main funders and architects of the project.

In
general, the SVG project has been partially successful, thanks to the
World Bank and the NDP's foresight. 

Could
the success have been better if it had been appropriately managed by
the NDP instead of the ULP? 

Children
are still dropping out before their education is complete. Crime and
violence among the youth is rife. Many children leaving school are
unable to properly, or not at all, read and write and carry out
simple mathematical tasks. 

Thousand
leaving school to find no jobs, and so undereducated they are unable
to travel abroad for positions other than fruit picking. That is
not a condemnation of, or the failure of the youth; it is a
condemnation of a failed education system under a ULP administration.
.

There
are, of course, children that excel in their studies and learning.
But that is more because those children are carrying genes that mean
they will succeed wherever, whenever, and whatever. Others are coming
from middle and upper-class homes where the parents ensure proper
personal input into their learning.

The ULP
not only failed to educate the majority of SVG's youth properly, but
they built only a minor few low-cost houses, yet have built
middle-class homes for those that do not require help. 

The
hospital in Kingstown has been a failure for the last twenty years. A
few medical centers have been refurbished, and a couple of new ones
built. But in all those cases due to schemes by foreign
organizations, nothing to do with the ULP's ability, capability, or
initiative.

Here are
some of the records regarding help from the World Bank education
scheme.

Britain
gives somewhere approaching a billion US dollars a year to the World
Bank.

2000,
Caribbean: The World Bank introduced a scheme and initiative
internationally to improve world education called Education for All.'
Education for All (EFA) was first launched in 1990 to bring the
benefits of education to "every citizen in every society."
To realize this aim, a broad coalition of national governments, civil
society groups, and development agencies such as UNESCO and the World
Bank Group committed to achieving six specific education goals:

1/
Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education,
especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

2/
Ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, those in
difficult circumstances, and those belonging to ethnic minorities,
have access to and complete, free, and compulsory primary education
of good quality.

3/
Ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met
through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills
programs.

4/
Achieve a 50% improvement in adult literacy by 2015, especially for
women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all
adults.

5/
Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by
2005, and achieve gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus
on ensuring girls' full and equal access to and achievement in basic
education of good quality.

6/
Improve all aspects of the quality of education and ensure the
excellence of all, so that recognized, and measurable learning
outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy, and
essential life skills.

By 2000,
189 countries and their partners adopted the two EFA goals that align
with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2 and 3, which refer to
universal primary education and gender parity. The World Bank
recognizes that achieving these goals requires supporting the full
EFA commitment.

The
World Bank funded the scheme, which was generally successful. One
small country in particular led by a left-wing socialist even adopted
it as their education revolution to fool their voters into believing
they are excellent and responsible for the scheme.

Since
2004, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, supported by the World Bank,
has undertaken the construction and rehabilitation of secondary
schools to create an additional 750 school places. Increase secondary
enrollment by about 30 percentage points, provide instructional
materials, train counselors and teachers, and help to increase the
Caribbean Examinations Council pass rates by 14 percentage points.
About 15,000 students benefitted from the project.

The Bank
provided financing of SDR2.2 million and US$3.1 million in 2004.

The
United Kingdom's Department of International Development (DFID),
provided close collaboration during design, it helped to provide
funding for some of the quality enhancing activities.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2013/04/23/Saint-Vincent-Grenadines-secondary-education-better-teachers-students

By 2012,
The World Bank was working through OECS.

St.
Vincent and the Grenadines - OECS Education Development Project
(English)

REPORT
ABSTRACT

Ratings
for the OECS Education Development Project for St. Vincent and the
Grenadines were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory; risk to
development outcome was low or negligible; Bank performance was
moderately satisfactory and borrower performance was satisfactory.
Some lessons learned includes: if procurement delays or failed
tenders occur despite good faith efforts of the government, then
related requests for project extension should be granted.
Extracurricular activities are a cost effective way to generate
interest in school, particularly that of boys. Though of modest cost,
after school activities such as the school band was reported to have
enticed students, especially boys, not only for attendance, but also
for avoiding failing their courses. In a context like St. Vincent,
all efforts should be made to include and preserve vocational
education opportunities. Even with the delayed approval of
implementing regulations for the new education act, institutional
changes can continue as if the regulations were passed. Classroom
libraries can be a critical input to engagement and literacy.

Most
certainly not a scheme initially related to the ULP. The SVG'
Education Upgrade' was someone else's idea, someone else's money, and
someone else's initiative.

The
World Bank Group also supports the Global Partnership for Education
(GPE) as a Board Member, host of the GPE Secretariat, trustee, and
supervising entity for the vast majority of GPE grants.

Finally,
the World Bank supports EFA efforts through analytic work and the
sharing of global knowledge and good practice. The Bank's analytic
work has, for example, helped establish benchmarks for quality,
efficiency, and resource mobilization in the education sector.
Ref: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/education-for-all

So dear
Vincentians, I am sorry you were all fooled to believe this was the
idea and design of Comrade Gonsalves, but it was not. It was
initially organized by the NDP, funded and designed by the World
Bank, in collaboration with the UK government. Only the name belongs
to the comrade 'The Education Revolution.' Of course, he also owns
the failure part of the scheme. Under the ULP management, it has been
a tragic underperformance of the original concept.

All
of these Caribbean countries took part in the World Bank education
scheme, 'Education
for All.' Only
Saint Vincent renamed it the Education Revolution.

Bahamas,
The

Barbados

Belize

Dominican
Republic, The

Guyana

Haiti

Jamaica

Organization
of Eastern Caribbean States

Antigua
and Barbuda

Dominica

Grenada

Saint
Kitts and Nevis

Saint
Lucia

Sint
Maarten

Suriname

Trinidad
and Tobago

Is the ULP Education Revolution A Fraud, or Simply an Embroidered Lie?

DISCLAMER: The opinion, belief and viewpoint expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinion, belief and viewpoint of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com or official policies of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com