Just because Barbadians have been given the green light by government to be “outside” for the Crop Over Festival and other social and cultural gatherings, does not mean that all the dangers brought on by the pandemic have disappeared.The unintended or consequential effects of the pandemic are playing out in ways that too many of our citizens have not been paying attention.One of those coming to light this week emanated from the heartbreaking call of a father to one of the popular radio call-in programmes, in which he complained that his son was being denied a place in fifth-form at his secondary school because he had reached the age of 16 and had only qualified to write two Caribbean Examination Certificates (CXCs).The father explained that his son was kept back when he was in second form and as a consequence, was always one year behind others in his age group.For most of us who have passed through the Barbados secondary school system, we are aware of those students who “stopped down” because they either were away from school for health or other challenges or were academically weak during the period.But if we are to be brutally honest, we would admit that some school administrators, including Year Heads, used the “stop down” tool as punishment for disruptive students or those with disciplinary issues.
