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Dear editor,
I have a question for the school board on Saba. Nothing against the TEACHERS, but as a young mother, I am fighting for my kids to have good education.
My kids soon will be going to the primary school so my problem is, if we are part of The Netherlands, why do we have so much of ENGLISH teachers on the island of saba ? How come we don’t have Dutch teachers on the island of Saba?
A dutch man was on Saba and he had a friend with him, so he told the friend in Dutch to look at this island: half of the people don’t speak Dutch. What a waste!
So I said to my self, my God, he is right. The young people of today don’t speak a word of Dutch. What are the youths learning in school because half of the teachers could hardly speak good English, some of them even go online to follow courses.
People talk about the dutch people as if they would want to take over Saba. But when it comes to education and health care, they are one of the best.
Please people of Saba, wake up and smell the coffee before it’s too late.
Name withheld on request.
Saba’s pay scale does not even compare to that of Holland’s. That’s reason #1.
Second, our cost of living is too high also. A lower wage and a higher cost of living isn’t a dream situation for a teacher working abroad.
Also, this is a English speaking island. Period.
SHS has a young, energetic Dutch teacher who just moved here from Holland. The kids love her, and she is teaching them new words and phrases every day.
I’m assuming you are originally from Holland.. Which in turn, speaks immensely for your article in itself.
And in fact, there are many teachers, from SABA and other countries who are taking Dutch languages courses.
In order to answer your question why the Dutch language is so limited on the island you need to look at the history of the island. The original Saban settlers were not Dutch; they came from English Speaking European Countries. Dutch was the language of instructions at the schools through the mid-1980s. To say that Dutch skills are lacking is not totally true.
Many Saban students go to the US for university level education.