BCC academic performances drop, mental health pressures to blame Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

The principal of the Barbados Community College has reported a drop in academic performance and rise in mental health issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Annette Alleyne was speaking at the Convocation Ceremony for first-year students on Friday, when she revealed that the college saw an increase in mental health concerns during the 2020/21 academic year.

“During the COVID period, when we had to go online for majority of the classes, there were increased reports through the Counselling and Placement Centre about students who were having challenges with their mental health,” Alleyne said.

“When students did their portfolio for the visual arts, a number of the students’ pieces showed the struggles they had with anxiety, loneliness and depression,” she continued.

With mental health reports increasing over the past two years, the BCC principal insisted that a return to face-to-face classes was necessary.

“We knew that it was a concern for the students during the online period which is why we had such a great push for students to come back face to face,” she maintained.

Alleyne shared that academic performance was also affected, with several students expressing that they were unable to focus in the home environment. She reported that the college saw a decline in grades. While students in programmes such as graphic design and computer studies strived in the online environment, “in some other programmes which were highly theoretical, students didn’t do very well,” said the principal.

Alleyne also indicated that there was an “unusual” large number of students requesting to defer their studies for a year or another semester.

“The number of students that we had requesting extended studies had more or less doubled from what it previously.

“A large number of students were asking for extended studies, [for] another year [or] another semester because some of them chose to defer various programmes,” she revealed.

The BCC principal explained that the transition from an face-to-face learning environment to virtual, was “challenging”.

To further assist struggling students, the college enhanced its summer school to facilitate those impacted.

“When the government allowed the students to come back in 2020, we had a summer school session. We did it in 2021 and again in 2022. This was to assist students who had challenges with the virtual environment, who didn’t have devices and students who didn’t have access to the internet,” she explained.

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