St. Maarten Private Eye

Hady, I like your blog about our education in shambles but you are mistaken when you say that nothing has changed since you were in school 25 years ago.
The schools now are more over crowded than they were 25 years ago. And today there are more schools than 25 years ago and they are all over crowded.
The massive influx of immigrants mainly from the Caribbean has contributed to them bringing their children and also many of them being born on the island. If you ask any old timer from back in the day, immigrant women that became pregnant on SXM from other islands had to leave SXM back to their island of origin in order to deliver their baby.
When this was changed I have no idea, but the effects we see now. Our schools are so over crowded, so much so that is a strain on the students but also on teachers. Teachers have to abide by the new Foundation Based Education system without teachers aids, without tools and with classrooms of 30 students. All this while FBE calls for smaller classes, a teachers helper and hands on learning tools for students.
Many of the schools do not have quiet areas where students can take a rest -no psycologist on premises for the children with problems and trust me there are plenty of those to go around. Public schools have become the dumping ground for children from anywhere with no back ground checks being done, again a strain on the teachers.
Children with behavioral problems, children from abused homes, children with learning problems, slow learners, all sorts of disorders, and teachers have no choice but to put up with their crowded class rooms of all sorts.
I do believe that most people support the teachers as this issue has been going on for so long, it is indeed disrespectful to the people who take it upon themselves to educate our children. If only our government will pay more attention to education for the next 10 years with upgrading all matters pertaining to education. And please we do not need the same new schools as the constant chant goes, we need less children.
New schools should offer something the others do not offer, special education, longer hours, trade schools, classes especially for difficult students, anger management courses, etc etc.