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Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
History
Date of Award
5-2004
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
William Douglas Burgess Jr.
Committee Members
Ronnie M. Day, Henry J. Antikiewicz
Abstract
Free education has been attempted since Bermuda’s 17th century settlement. This thesis examines government’s role in education and establishment of schools by government and religious societies. Early education taught slaves about salvation, frightened whites, and threatened established authority. Christianity made blacks aware of freedom.
By the 1940s, black scholars pushed for equality and focused concern for students denied education with their intellectual peers. Intelligence tests determined entrance to secondary school. Whites were relinquishing public education to blacks and were resistant to black’s aspirations. Integration was thrust to the forefront.
In the 1980s, the secondary entrance exam was denounced for young black males and as promoting a drug culture. In 1987, the government restructured with integration as a fiscal necessity and a failed social-political exercise. Outside consultants guided the changes in ways less than suitable to Bermuda’s circumstance. A large single secondary school was created that has been viewed as promoting private education more than anything in Bermuda’s history.¹
Document Type
Thesis - restricted
Recommended Citation
Williams, Vincent Sinclair, "The History of Government's Role in Education in Bermuda from the Founding of the Colony to the Present." (2004). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 900. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/900
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.