Minister of Social Development and Education, Minister Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers, presented updates from her Ministry at the government press briefing on Monday, May 9.
She noted that her recent trip to Barbados, funded by the Australian Government and the Commonwealth Secretariat, included a workshop to discuss good governance and social transformation initiatives across the region.
She stated that the focus of the workshop hinged on discussions on Gender-Responsive Budgeting and on a feasibility study in relation to the Care Economy – which includes childcare and elderly care.
The points of discussion were: “to assess the costs in relation to those two industries and what are the economic multipliers that Caribbean countries can face by regulating the care economy a little more closely, and to ensure that we look at these matters which usually have a little bit of a gender skew – because usually, the persons who are responsible for childcare and elderly care are women.”
Ms. Kentish-Rogers observed that in Anguilla, the responsibility for childcare and elderly care usually falls on women.
She said: “There are a lot of working persons in the Anguillian community who have significant responsibilities in relation to elderly persons in their care and we are, as a region, looking to see how we can address this equitably. That is one in Anguilla that needs our attention.”
Commenting on the new policy initiatives in the Ministry of Education, Ms Kentish-Rogers said that the “new hair policy [part of the] reform on the National Code of Discipline and Dress in partnership with reforms in the behaviour management policies, is still ongoing.”
The Ministry is also focussing on improving school leadership and student wellbeing.
She said: “We are in the process of launching our educational task forces which will look at leadership and administration, teaching methods, teacher training and recruitment, and pastoral care – all with a focus on child-wellbeing to ensure that we are keeping pace with the developments regionally and globally. We are also focussing on how well our students are doing – both emotionally and mentally in our systems.”
Ms Kentish-Rogers indicated that the Ministry is looking at improving students’ education in financial literacy.
She noted that “the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Mr Timothy Antoine, conducted his country visit to Anguilla last week and made a visit to The Valley Primary School – a mentorship school for the ECCB.
“We engaged in a conversation with the ECCB as a financial institution, and in partnership with other financial institutions in Anguilla and regionally, looking at financial literacy among our students and how we can come together to formulate a framework for financial literacy in Anguilla.”
Moving forward, the Ministry plans to incorporate financial literacy as an education focus for all students, both at the primary level as well as at the secondary level.
