Councilman Louis Mussington will be presenting a new language policy to the Territorial Council on this Thursday, October 27, at 2 pm at town hall.
"This is the first step towards real change in our educational system," said Mussing who is chairman of the commission on education, a post which he took over on December 16, 2010. "My objective was for our commission to present a document to council by October 2011," said Mussington.
He emphasized that too much time was wasted over the five years while our children continue to drop out of school.
The new propose policy is to implement a bilingual school system at the primary level. "The organic law gives us the opportunity to adopt a bilingual educational system, but nobody in our local government did anything to make it possible over the past five years."
The new educational system will reflect the cultural reality of St. Martin. It is possible through the organic law, but we need to push forward a new agreement with the government of France," said Mussington, who is also an educator.
The opposition councilman recalled back in 1987 when the St. Martin Educational and Cultural Organization (SMECO) petition the French government to integrate St. Martin teachers in the educational. "This has been a long struggle, and intent to carry it to the end until we start seeing positive results coming from our class room," Mussington is president of the Movement for the Advancement of the People (MAP).
I want to also take this opportunity to thank all members from the commission, for their hard work and dedication.