ASHA KAMBON

THE ANNOUNCEMENT that migrant children will be allowed into schools in September is excellent news for all who believe in social justice and the human rights of the child. As we welcome migrant students into our schools, we are presented with an opportunity to turn around our country's education system to account for and correct the psychologically violent, colonial inheritance of a race and colour-based hierarchy.

I implore the ministry to look at the results of studies that address bias in education, in the region and the world, and to move forward with an eye to using education as a tool of upliftment for all rather than a platform to reinforce bias.

I am calling on the ministry to consider the impact of teachers' cultural biases on their students. Within a Caribbean classroom, bias is typically reflected in the privileging of students who possess the 'right' phenotypes - 'good hair' and a 'good complexion' - at the expense of children with the 'wrong' characteristics - 'dark skin' and 'bad hair' - a continuation of the old colonial order of white over brown over black.

Without addressing these biases in the school system, not only will we propagate a meritless hierarchy, but we will also condemn many of our children to suffer ever deepening discrimination. We need to anticipate and avoid the expansion of a racialised underclass.

Many of us, including some of our teachers, have embedded biases. Colour-blindness in the education system, rather than ensuring non-discriminatory practices, simply ignores them. To counter the damage of prejudice, we must first confront the reality of its existence and then enact solutions in line with current research.

Race and ethnicity are both social constructs and therefore changing behaviours with regard to race and ethnicity can be achieved through policies that address socialisation and education. The Caribbean's own Professor of Education (Language, Literacy and Cross-Linguistic Studies), S Joel Warrican of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, focuses on comparative education, multiculturalism and multilingualism, colonialism and education change.

He laments the large proportion of children who are excluded from participating in the CSEC exams across the region, and others who perform poorly, and argues that 'While many reasons are given for this poor showing (for example, poor cognitive ability, lack of interest in education, laziness, absence of parental guidance and interest), I believe that there is something else that is being overlooked or minimised. To me, what is not being given sufficient attention is the unjust, marginalising and debilitating systems of education that oppress and depress students whose language, culture, and values do not reflect those of the dominant white, male, middle-class ideals of modern education.'

In a study on Tackling teachers' low expectations of black Caribbean students in English schools, undertaken by Feyisa Demie (2022) from the Department of Education, Durham University