Minister Calls for Strategic Action to Strengthen Values in Barbados and the Region

Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Senator Dr Shantal Munro-Knight has called on leaders in Barbados and across the region to take deliberate and strategic action to strengthen values in the home, school, workplace and communities.

Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the International Conference on Strengthening Values Education at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Thursday, she said leaders must model the behaviour they want the youth to emulate.

Munro-Knight added that in their interaction with colleagues, students and parents, leaders in the education system should demonstrate tolerance and a commitment to human values.

“We must engage with the community that we serve, encourage our youth to join and participate in community service, fostering a sense of social and active civic responsibility. We must all be mentors, guides and role models to as many as we can,” she said.

Senator Munro-Knight noted that leaders often stand in a position to control and offer a level of guidance but must come down from their thrones and foster relationships that offer true guidance with a spirit of love and cooperation.

“We all need to be advocates for change, to speak out against injustice and inequality in our region and advocate for policies and practices that promote inclusivity, equity and social justice. We must work together with fellow educators and institutions across the region,” she said.

“I would suggest that a lot of the negative attributes that we are seeing amongst our young people today, that we point to and call them as the lost generation. If we humbly take a step back and reflect, we will see a lot of those in ourselves, in our behaviours, and our leadership. It is a humbling thought, but I hope it is also a thought that can spur us as leaders for change and transformation.”

Munro-Knight noted that in May 2023, the government and the Social Partnership established a Mission Economy, identifying six missions that would define the pathway for Barbadians. She said undergirding those missions are critical values of justice, fairness and care for fellow men.

“It is intended that these values and the charter together send signals to this society about what it is that we want to be able to carve and see where we want Barbados to go. It is about value-driven leadership,” she said.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Culture also stressed that countries across the region must recognise the beauty and strength in their differences because “it is here that we cultivate and foster the respect and tolerance and understanding needed for the Caribbean’s collective development and prosperity”.

“But in order to meet this responsibility to and amongst ourselves, it requires deliberate and strategic action. We can no longer leave it to accident.

The conference, taking place between October 12 and 14, has been organised by the Sai Institute of Education West Indies (SIEWI).

Director of SIEWI Lalu Vaswani said the objective of the programme is to increase awareness of the need to strengthen the practice of human values in the home, school, workplace and communities.

He said SIEWI was also initiating a plan of action to provide countries in the region with the opportunity to embed human values into the educational system and the community through programmes and professional training courses coordinated by the institute.

“The programme teaches each individual that you have to experience the values which are all within us. You don’t go to the store next door to buy two pounds of truth; it is all within you. So, how do you bring it out? Bring out means to translate through actions in your deeds of daily living. This is not a programme that causes you to change; this is a lifelong transformational project,” Vaswani said.

(AH)