I salute Education Minister Rolston Anglin for initiating the new academic criteria for students’ graduation from government schools. (Please see our story  “Schools Shake Up” Thu 17 Nov.) Students will no longer be said to have ‘graduated’ simply by turning up to school on a regular basis and being well behaved. All students who wish to obtain a high school diploma at the end of their compulsory education will also need to meet a minimum academic standard.

The qualifications graduates obtain are very confusing to would be employers. Do CXC and GCSE qualifications have equal value? How does a BTEC qualification compare to an IGCSE pass? What does a COEA qualification mean and what skill levels do persons with these passes possess? “We’re constantly faced with these questions,” said Anglin. “It’s important that everyone in the community understands how qualifications are ranked and rated and how they match up to skills and knowledge levels. The Cayman Islands National Qualifications Framework (CINQF) will assist with all this.”

The present system of “diplomas for all” was meaningless.

Georgina’s Wilcox’s recent article (“Crime and Community Safety”) re the abysmal record of our police force’s record keeping reported in 1996 and the Auditor General, Alastair Swarbrick’s recent report saying almost the same thing, seems to be continuing ad nauseam. Jennifer Dilbert, the Information Commissioner slammed the RCIPS this week saying, “Procedurally, the handling of this case, from the initial response to the internal review, was atrocious. The RCIPS need to take steps to improve the way they process and handle FOI requests.” Not a single one of the legal requirements and best practice rules which applied during the course of the request were followed in this case, she added. Mrs. Dilbert also stated that there are some “very serious record-keeping issues” within the RCIPS.

Mrs. Dilbert was referring to a request for records of the PSU (Professional Standards Unit) investigations including personnel records of the applicant that was partially refused by the RCIPS.

However, the RCIPS, are still using the old ‘gobbledygook’ trick by suggesting the applicant returns to the RCIPS at a future date as the investigation files were not yet officially closed and therefore “investigations could be continued.”

Thankfully Mrs. Dilbert would have none of this and gave the RCIPS 30 days to conduct a further search for records and 45 days to seek a judicial review of the Commissioner’s Decision if they so chose.

I also salute Mrs. Dilbert.