00:00 Dr. Shirla Waldron-Joseph has been a teacher for the past 25 years.
00:06 She was promoted through the ranks and is today the principal of the Bethesda Government
00:12 Primary School.
00:13 She started pursuing her PhD in 2018 and studied through the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:20 I applied in August of 2018 and they accepted me and I started the program and I graduated
00:27 from the master's program in November of that same year.
00:31 Dr. Waldron-Joseph told TV6 News that the journey was an expensive one with many sleepless
00:39 nights but it was all worthwhile.
00:42 She has a BA in Education, a Master's in Leadership and Administration and now her Doctor of Education,
00:51 Educational Leadership.
00:52 This program is really not for the faint-hearted when it comes to the work and it comes to
00:56 the type of money and with no assistance I was also grateful.
01:00 For me I was fortunate enough I would have applied to DITAS and they would have given
01:05 me a small portion but practically the entire course was my BA.
01:11 Sometimes she felt like giving up but with the support of her husband, her two daughters,
01:18 her late mom and her church family, they would not let her throw in the towel.
01:25 As the lone Tibigonian in the program, she studied online with a fellow student from
01:30 the Bahamas.
01:31 WhatsApp and Zoom were our best friends so we would contact each other through WhatsApp,
01:39 we would study through WhatsApp, we would study through, we would open the Zoom platform,
01:44 we would meet through Google Meet and we would study.
01:47 Thank God for technology.
01:49 For the present education system, she wants to see real change and continuous assessment,
01:56 for example, changes to the SEA examination.
02:00 That type of assessment where we have the one size fits all C exam, we need to see something
02:07 much more than that because they are students that are really, they are exceptional but
02:11 you know what Liz, they cannot sit an exam.
02:15 When they get into the exam scenario atmosphere, they shut down and then to people they will
02:22 be deemed as dull but they are not dull.
02:25 It's the type of assessment these children are allowed to be engaged in.
02:30 To her fellow educators, she's advising them to be continuous learners, treating each student
02:37 as an individual.
02:39 I want us as educators to look at children as individuals, they all come with unique
02:45 abilities, unique talents, unique giftings and if we look at them from that aspect then
02:52 we also seek to develop their uniqueness in the system.
02:57 We can no longer take a broad brush and paint a picture.
03:02 Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
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