St. Maarten Private Eye

a) history and culture of the island is taught, maybe the reason you think it's not is because half of the illegal kids in the class don;t give a crap/ have a problem with the language/ etc.
b) "teachers are from elsewhere, because we didn't invest enough in training our own" - also not true, everywhere in the world there is a teacher shortage, it's on everyone's agenda : get more teachers, st. maarten is not alone in this area
c)" having teachers from elsewhere benefits us" - this is case specific. LOTS of teachers dont' come here for the pay (the pay sucks, they would get more in their home country), but they come for some time in the sun and then they leave after their contract expires after they have done the bare minimum required to stay employed. because they DON"T know the culture/history they don't adapt and can't relate to the students....again, case specific, there are others that thrive on experiencing a new culture and trying their best to reach the children they teach through novel approaches and breathe new life into the program, but your blanket statement is not an accurate reflection of the reality.
d) "in regards to lower level students holding back" ....yes we have entrance exams, but there are not enough "lower level schools" to handle the tons of students that belong in them and so spillover is inevitable......
e) you go on further to say it's not the children's fault, but the adults , parents, school boards etc...... well you are right...it's not the children's faults..the adults (parents) should not be here illegally, and create this strain on the system, the schoolboard should take a tougher stance on this and the government should work with stronger immigration enforcement. and if you think that there are less then 20,000 illegals on the island....you are completely dillusional....you say they are hiding...actually they are NOT, they are all out in BROAD daylight. why are they picked up in groups of 20's and others allowed to be here? same reason prositution is "illegal" but "exotic dancers" roam freely, twisted and loopholed rules and officials turning blind eyes to "non-problematic illegals" etc. CE should be introduced, but that is a NATIONAL topic for NATIONALS of our island territory, NOT illegals. what are we going to do next, adopt a seperate ammendment in the constituion giving them seperate rights within our land? of course not. Flipper if you want to get an idea of the reality go to MPC....a public school (that you say is SOOOO stark between that and say a private school like CIA or LU) the only stark difference is the money being paid. 300 guilders a YEAR versus 800 dollars a MONTH! if illegals could afford to be there they would, but they can't, so those schools avoid the problems by simply financially eliminating them.. i have nothing against those schools, they provide a service and they charge for it. but MPC as a school is not some bottom of the barrel second class institution that you sort of insinuate it is (my interpretation, forgive me if I am wrong in this assesment). Go to MPC and spend one month there, do some investigative journalism; i'll bet money you come out with a different perspective.