Is a fact about the boost of chambers of commerce
In 2012 the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KDK) made it clear in its annual speech that English is an important language for our educational system if we want to become a service exporting nation. Then in 2019 came the KdK report “let’s sow today to reap tomorrow”, where it was emphasized that our educational system must be adapted to the international context as well as to the needs of the local labor market in order to train our youth and workforce in world languages.
This will make it easier for young people to better connect with the world as well as obtain employment and business opportunities thanks to the possibility of unlimited access to global knowledge, resources and international networks. Data from the Central bureau of statistics (CBS) indicate that about 84% of our employees earn their bread thanks to a job in the service sector, where most of them are internationally oriented.
Therefore, KdK is greatly thanked for observing the start of two luxury Group 1 classes at the Immersion School St. Antonius College. It was in December 2019 that the Curacao has been invited by Papiamento (Fshp) to the largest directives of schools, namely Central Directive of Catholic Schools (RKCS), Vpco, Foundation for Humanist schools of Spanish Speaking (Fshp) and International School of Curaçao (ISC), also Ministry of Education, to entertain ideas regarding the problematic of how to fix the level of local education. Numerous problem points were identified during these meetings. Finally, six antenna areas were presented with the corresponding projects to the Minister of Education.
A quickly recognized obstacle was the poor command of world languages, especially English. Members of the management of various local companies also showed the chairman of KVK about it. In addition, it is important to note that several researchers have observed that young people at school easily learn (foreign) languages if they start with that at an early age.
Soon after the RKCS began to carry out cases of realization of an English immersion school with the support of the ISC. Subsequently, the KVK approached the Consulate General of the United States for a request for funding to be able to investigate the need and a “fact-finding mission”, which quickly obtained the approval of the US State Department. On the basis of this, two linguistic experts with extensive experience in different countries were hired to develop a curriculum taking into account the local culture and circumstances. These experts worked closely together with a group of local active teacher councils to come up with the curriculum for groups 1 to i to 5 (luxury classes I to 3), which was soon after approved by the Ministry of Education.
What is also important for cameramen is that local children can now make use of the educational system in the English language almost for free. KDK is confident that in this way it has donated its grain to the good of our youth.
KDK is convinced that St. Antonius College with English as the language of instruction will be very successful and with them the proof will be presented that this school can provide children with a glorious future due to the enormous possibilities that students who finish school will enjoy.
The chambers express the hope that more schools in this type of teaching will want to provide the same. Of course, two surveys confirmed the great need. The first Think-To-Do Institute survey showed that 87% of the 1,000 advanced school students who participated in it preferred to be taught in English. The second survey, conducted by the KdK, indicated that 88% of the 515 parents with children up to the age of 6 would like to put their children in a school with English as the language of instruction. KDK is confident that public schools will want to follow this example.
Finally, a good command of the English language offers our youth so many opportunities, such as access to work in the technology industry, knowledge and information, international networks, university education, one’s own company and exploring the world.
