by Linda Straker
- Education Act defines compulsory school age from 5 to 16 years, inclusive
- From September 2024, compulsory school age will increase to 17 years, inclusive
- Bill scheduled for debate and approval at 6 June sitting of Upper House
As of September 2024, the compulsory school age will increase to 17, because Grenada has made an amendment to its Education Act which currently defines compulsory school age from 5 to 16 years, inclusive. Such a move will lay the foundation to start addressing some critical issues that confront the development of the country.
Minister for Health Hon. Phillip Telesford, serving in his capacity as Leader of Government Business in the Lower House of Parliament, presented the bill to members for debate and approval. He told members that the bill seeks to amend the main education legislation by redefining compulsory school age.
“By increasing it to 17 inclusive, it means that a child ought to remain in school until he or she attains age 17. This particular bill is important because it sets the foundation to start to address some critical issues that confront us in our growing economy, our developing island,” he told the House. “We campaigned speaking on the good development of our young people, our youths, and one of the elements that spoke to the development was that of skills training and so our government is setting the platform to implement skills training throughout the system.”
He said, “This is guaranteeing that every child that leaves the school system should have at least a skill, that we believe is important because those skills will develop passions, and those passions if followed well and managed well, can result in people developing wonderful and prosperous careers, businesses and other dreams.”
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, in his contribution to the debate, said the amendment is just a foundational piece and adjusting it to a wider construct of how his government is dealing with education in Grenada. “You ought not to be given a choice to say you are exiting the education system… There is a notion that compulsory education ends with secondary school, but that is part of the challenge we have in the education system.”
Though the Employment Act defines the working age to start at 16, Mitchell said that people of that age cannot be legally hired, “because employment is a legal agreement, a contract” and the age for legal responsibility is 18. He then disclosed that as part of the process, there will be an amendment to the Employment Act.
The Prime Minister said the move is not a cure for the many challenges facing young people. “It is the beginning of putting in place one of the architectural frameworks as we begin to make sure that we don’t have a significant amount of students exiting school without a skill; this will be giving them an opportunity,” he said.
The bill is scheduled for debate and approval at the 6 June sitting of the Upper House.
Where are all these students going to go? We don’t have 6th form facilities and TAMCC can only hold so much of the students graduating from 5th form. Even considering NEWLO, there just doesn’t seem to be the capacity.
Yes we need programs in skills eg electronics, plumbing motor mechanics and others,the training should be two years and be properly
regulated with certification, this would lead to proper wage structure, persons who has years of experience should be able to get documentation as well,y