Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has highlighted the inefficiencies within the education system in Grenada beginning with the Imani, the flagship programme of the former New National Party (NNP) administration of Keith Mitchell.

Speaking in Parliament, the Grenadian leader questioned the Imani program’s ability to help young people get out of “no man land” when it came to employment.

“… Our education system was producing people who are giving credentials of subjects and that thaey were leaving school at the age of sixteen, not yet an adult and they are being asked to fend for themselves and that the only two institutions in Grenada that could take them was NEWLO, a non-government institution… and T.A. Marryshow Community College,” he said.

According to PM Dickon Mitchell, every year hundreds of young people are leaving secondary school with no skills or knowledge of skills for the workplace.

He pointed out that persons who decide to join the IMANI program now encounter being underpaid and in addition, due to low pay they would now have to depend on others which creates nothing but “a vicious cycle.”

“Instead of seeking to address the fundamental root problem, which is our education system, what we sought to do was (put) plaster on it by creating the IMANI program which ultimately leads to a situation where people are locked in,” he said.

The Prime Minister stressed that by not dealing with the root cause, this has resulted in multiple generations ending up in a “cycle of poverty” under the program.

Acknowledging that change does not work “overnight,” PM Mitchell revealed that the Ministry of Education has started technical and vocational education and training at the primary school level.

He also stated that the mandatory school leaving age will be raised to eighteen years old in September 2024.

He reinforced the decision by announcing, “It means that we recognise that allowing you to leave school at fifteen and sixteen years old when you are not an adult with little to no exposure to skills training puts you in a position where you are almost unemployable.”

“And you therefore become unemployed… and fall into the category of the youth who are poor,” he remarked.

PM Mitchell told legislators that the 18-month old Congress government is “obligated” to make moves towards solving the education system issues.

He disclosed that students at the primary and secondary school levels will be exposed to technical and vocational skills and training.

In addition, he said that the education system issues plague not only islands like Grenada but also advanced countries such as China.

He labelled the education system as “outdated” and “outmoded” for the current society.

To achieve funding for the initiative, the Prime Minister who is also the MP for St. David said that discussions have begun with NEWLO as well as the National Lotteries Authority.

He announced that locations for students and curriculum development will begin to make sure that “people between sixteen and eighteen” will be able to gain technical and vocational education.

The Prime Minister also addressed the issue of males aged eleven and twelve who do not get the opportunity to enter a secondary school.

He said the reality is that with students not passing the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA), they “drop out” of the school system.

“If you drop out of school at twelve years old, what life are we confining them to? Her majesty’s prison?

The 46-year old attorney-at-law by profession stressed that technical skills at the primary level is “paramount” to guarantee that the young men are not “abandoned.”

This point of view, he said, will allow young men to acknowledge that everyone is not academically included or would like to pursue academics.

Digital skills will also be added to the list of technical and vocational skills, according to PM Mitchell.

“More than ever, if there is a skill that every young Grenadian must acquire; it is digital skills. If we do not do so we will be left behind,” he said.

Giving support to the view extolled by Grenadian-born, Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Timothy Antoine regarding the “preoccupation of subjects”, PM Mitchell said that students should learn skills such as typing techniques.

“Typing replaces writing. If you cannot type, you almost can’t live in the world… When young people leave school and they come for a job… they can’t type. They have no exposure to Microsoft Suite, they have no exposure to Adobe Suite – These are the prerequisites,” he said.