Henry S. Fraser: Society School and the Codrington Legacy

Codrington College (File)

Henry S. Fraser

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Monday Juy 28, 2014 - “My two plantations in the island of Barbados to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts … and a convenient number of Professors and Scholars maintained there, all of them to be under vows of poverty and chastity and obedience … to study and practice Physic and Chirurgery as well as Divinity, that by the apparent usefulness of the former to all mankind, they may both endear themselves to the people and have the better opportunities of doing good to men’s souls whilst they are taking care of their bodies …” (From the will of Colonel Christopher Codrington, who died on Good Friday, April 7th, 1710.)

Christopher Codrington was described as the brightest star of Barbados – scholar, poet, public orator, soldier, governor and Christian benefactor. His vision of a University for Barbados to train Christian doctors, to care for their bodies and save the souls of all mankind, was an extraordinary vision, two and a half centuries ahead of the University of the West Indies. And his vision certainly inspired me, as a teenager at The Lodge School, one of the products of his vision, to become a Christian doctor at the institution that extended the mission of Codrington.

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Unfortunately the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) turned out to be hopeless managers. The college buildings were well underway by 1721 but not completed until 1743 and the Codrington Grammar School finally began in 1745. Because of inept management from afar, the school suffered serious vicissitudes and the College of Codrington’s vision never materialised until the arrival of our first bishop, William Hart Coleridge. He recognised the failure of the SPG and was able to bring the College into being, by moving the school up the hill to the “Upper Estate”, now called Society, to the Chaplain’s Lodge, in 1829 and so it became The Lodge School. The College began in full, at last, in 1830 and was later affiliated with the University of Durham. It trained priests, teachers and administrators for the entire English speaking Caribbean and beyond, including my father-in-law, the revered Lee Harford Skeete, and most Caribbean priests and bishops for nearly 150 years.

While the College building contains its own splendid small chapel, beautifully panelled and with a barrel vaulted ceiling, the SPG built a larger, wooden chapel for the slaves in 1819 – the first conscientious attempt within the Anglican community to bring Christianity to the slaves. It was replaced by a stone chapel in 1831, and after this was blown down in the 1831 hurricane, the present Society Chapel, now Holy Cross Church, was built, under guidance of Bishop Coleridge.

Meanwhile, the College began a Sunday School for the slave children in 1795. This became a full primary school in 1797, an initiative that would have been much against the wishes of planters across the Caribbean, who were against such instruction for slaves. It is truly a shining historical legacy … the first known school set up to teach the slave children here and possibly anywhere in the Caribbean, unless preceded by Moravian schools in the Danish Virgin Islands. The present building of Society School is a solid coral stone structure on a solid plateau of rock in the middle of Society Hill, built more than a hundred years ago. It caters to the surrounding villages of Society, College Bottom, Sargeant Street, Coach Hill, Massiah Street and Stewart’s Hill. And at the top of the hill, next to Holy Cross and the cross commemorating Reverend Rawle, is the sprawling complex of Codrington School.

The Codrington legacy has thus resulted in Codrington College, The Lodge School, Society School, the Rawle Institute (replaced by Erdiston Teachers College), Codrington School and Holy Cross Church – six important, historic educational establishments which have had a huge impact not only on Barbados but the wider Caribbean. Indeed the Society School has produced famous figures like Rawle Parkinson, the great, legendary educator after whom the Parkinson School is named, and today’s distinguished, globally successful alumni such as Dr. Ken Harewood and Dr. Louis Brown, as well as a long list of local luminaries.

It was therefore a shock to pupils, parents, teachers, alumni, historians and the wider society to hear in June of the sudden closure of Society School. This follows poor maintenance leading to the need for industrial cleaning last September, which resulted in a drop in the number of students. Shocked parents, teachers, parish priest and others have organised a petition and efforts to keep this historic educational monument open. Distinguished alumni of the school have joined the effort, vocalised by attorney David Commissiong, and at a large meeting of parents last Sunday the passion for maintaining the school was clear, echoed in a CBC-TV news poll of 85 % of responders voting to keep it open.

My own assessment is that the historic importance of the school justifies its continuing existence even if it remains a small school, by amalgamating so as to reduce the number of classes, as has been suggested. From what I have been told by several parties, it seems that the physical problems are poor maintenance and not structural; the need for industrial cleaning last September allegedly led to the drop in the roll as some parents were so upset that they removed their children. Primary school children should not have to travel long distances to school. And the importance of the Codrington legacy and the entire Codrington complex, in the opinion of many, justifies World Heritage inscription. In fact Barbados has submitted the Sugar (and Rum) Industry of Barbados as a tentative nomination, and Codrington’s six institutions with their rich and unique history comprise a hugely important part of the larger nomination. We should therefore be proud not only of the history of Society, its seminal role in the education of slave children and the building of its surrounding community, but of its brilliant alumni here and around the world. We should do everything to keep it open and rebuild its great reputation. While alternative uses of the building can be considered, our Governments’ outstanding record over decades of abandoning buildings to decay does not give hope.

The Sentinel Committee of the National Trust will be more than willing to assess and report on the physical state of the school, before it joins the many other derelict built treasures abandoned by successive governments over the past 40 years.

Bouquet: To Glyne Murray on the launch on Wednesday of his splendid book Barbados – Customs to Treasure.

Professor Fraser is past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine. Website:  profhenryfraser.com

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Henry S. Fraser: Society School and the Codrington Legacy

China faces obstacles on road to consumer society

“Prices are rocketing up. People’s incomes can hardly catch up,” said Zhao, 38. “Daily necessities, yes, I still have to buy them. But anything I don’t necessarily need, then no.”

The reluctance of Zhao and his customers to open their wallets wider is one of a thicket of obstacles facing communist leaders as they try to rebalance China’s economy away from reliance on investment, a big share of which comes from the government and is losing its ability to boost growth.

The government is walking a fine line, however, as an abrupt shift in the economy could hurt growth, with consequences not just for the country but the global economy. China’s economic importance was laid bare last month, when a report showing a drop in manufacturing activity caused turmoil on world markets.

Combined with an export boom, a flood of spending on new factories, highways and other assets powered the past decade of explosive growth. That helped China rebound quickly from the 2008 global crisis. But it was paid for with a surge in borrowing that economists warn looks like debt booms in other developing countries that spiraled into financial crises.

As urgency for change mounts, so do potential hurdles. Consumer spending accounts for only about 35 percent of gross domestic product, well below neighboring India’s 60 percent, and that percentage declined last year. Curbs on investment will mean less money flows to wages in construction and building materials industries such as steel and cement.

“It is a pretty narrow path that policymakers have to push the economy along,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist for Capital Economics. “The risk is that if investment spending slows too much, then that starts to undermine consumer spending and you get a downward spiral.”

Forecasts of this year’s growth range from 7 to 8 percent, far ahead of the United States and Europe but down from China’s double-digit rates of the past decade. Last year’s 7.7 percent growth tied with 2012 for the weakest performance in two decades. And it hit that only after the government launched a mini-stimulus in mid-2013 with more spending on building new railways and other public works.

The impact of a government clampdown on lending and construction is showing in slower economic activity, raising the risk of politically difficult job losses.

A survey by HSBC Corp. found manufacturers cut jobs in January at their fastest rate in five years. Profits at China’s biggest companies grew in December at their slowest rate in nine months. Growth in factory output and retail sales weakened, suggesting that the quarter’s headline growth of 7.7 percent might mask a deepening downturn.

Moves to encourage consumer spending are part of a marathon effort by the Communist Party to transform China from a low-wage factory into a high-income creator of technology with self-sustaining economic growth.

A broad-strokes plan issued by the party leadership in November promises to give entrepreneurs who generate most of China’s new jobs and wealth more access to state-dominated industries.

Regulators announced last month that they will allow the creation of five privately financed banks this year. The government has announced plans for a dozen new free-trade zones in Shanghai and other cities with promises of easier restrictions on business.

But such changes will take time to show results.

“Our expectation is that there isn’t going to be any national-level substantive reform within 2014,” said economist Brian Jackson of IHS Global Insight. “They’re going to launch small experiments.”

The biggest potential growth risk cited by many analysts: A rapid buildup of debt in China’s government-owned banking system.

China’s banks avoided mortgage-related turmoil that battered Western lenders but ramped up lending under orders from the government to help fend off the effects of the 2008 global slowdown.

The IMF and industry analysts warn they might be hit by a rise in defaults if toll roads and other projects approved in haste fail to earn enough.

The central bank says debt levels are manageable, but economists say the speed of the increase is a warning sign. Outstanding bank loans have swelled by the equivalent of 70 percent of China’s gross domestic product over the past five years. Analysts point to countries such as Thailand that have plunged into financial crises after seeing smaller debt increases of as little as 30 percent.

China “needs to contain the building of risks in the financial sector without excessively slowing growth,” said the IMF chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, at a news conference last month. “This is always a very a delicate balancing act.”

At the same time, the government’s effort to clamp down on credit and tighten control over informal lending that support entrepreneurs has sent shock waves through financial markets. Markets in which banks lend to each other ran short of cash twice last year, causing interest rates to spike and fueling unease about the availability of credit.

“The uncertainty related to rate spikes and liquidity squeezes may affect business spending more broadly,” said UBS economist Tao Wang in a report.

Wages in some areas such as the manufacturing-intensive southeast are forecast to rise this year by as much as 10 percent. But workers complain that gains are eaten up by rising living costs — a bad sign for government hopes for higher consumer spending.

Lei Qiang, a logistics manager in Shanghai, said he and his wife have little left every month after paying for basics and save whatever they can. They plan to return to their hometown of Xi’an in western China with their 2-year-old daughter to escape Shanghai’s high cost of living.

“Living in Shanghai for three years, my rent went up every year by 20 to 30 percent,” said Lei, 38. “That was far more than my pay rose.”

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China faces obstacles on road to consumer society

Holness: Resist attempts to muzzle civil society groups

OPPOSITION Leader Andrew Holness yesterday called on Jamaicans to resist any attempt by the Government to muzzle or regulate civil society groups, the Opposition or anyone else who criticises their way of doing things.

“Recently we noticed a trend whereby civil society is being attacked by the Government (and) the most recent was a resolution seeking to further regulate civil society,” Holness told guests at the Rotary Club of Kingston luncheon at the Jamaica Pegasus in Kingston.Holness, in an apparent reference to the recent stand-off between Youth and Culture Minister Lisa Hanna and rights group Jamaicans for Justice over the need to address various issues relating to children in custody, said it is dangerous for democracy and the first step in trying to create a totalitarian mindset.“If civil society [groups] cannot speak their mind or criticise the Government without fear [and] that Government uses its authority in legislation to indirectly muzzle them… this will effectively lead to a breakdown in our democratic traditions,” Holness said.Holness, who accused the Government of wanting the country to follow one mindset, said although the Government has to implement austerity measures, it is always important that there are voices that will not only hold them accountable but that can also point out alternatives.Alternatives, he said, should be presented to the Government on the cutting of public sector expenditure as well as the cutting of teachers’ leave entitlement as this was not the best way to go.“Government has to be very careful that in trying to cut cost you don’t cut motivation and productivity. All it takes is for a group to become frustrated and the very results that you need for a productive labour force, you could see your education results decline,” Holness said.A better policy, he said, would be to improve the systems of accountability.“…So if the teacher has leave, make sure that leave is working to ensure that the teachers go and study subjects that are relevant to the curriculum,” he said.At the same time, Holness questioned the rationale behind the Government’s decision to put wards of the state into foster care instead of institutionalised care, as a way of cutting cost. This, Holness said, is done despite the children needing specialised attention of state institutions.” It is being done because it is cheaper to send children into foster care than it is to keep them into institutionalised care,” he said.Meanwhile, the Opposition leader said while austerity measures have to be applied, the application can be like a knife.“In the hands of a butcher it will kill you, [but] in the hands of a doctor it is scalpel which could save you. So we need to decide which hand has that knife,” Holness said as he questioned if what was being applied to the economy was bitter medicine or poison.

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Holness: Resist attempts to muzzle civil society groups