BPS Holds In-person Classes

Dr. Rodney D. Smith’s career in education has been marked by positions of ever-increasing responsibility, including service as vice president for administrative affairs at Hampton University, a historically black college in Virginia, and as president and CEO at Ramapo College in New Jersey. He has both a master’s and doctoral degree in education from the Harvard School of Graduate Education. Dr. Rodney D. Smith currently serves as president and CEO at the University of the Bahamas, a post he filled in 2014.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has led to extraordinary public health protocols in the Bahamas. Schools were closed and students continued their education by remote instruction. In February 2021, many schools reverted to a hybrid learning model, a mix of remote and in-person learning. However, the university has closed for the remainder of the spring 2021 semester, so all instruction is now occurring remotely. Likewise, the students at Nassau’s CW Sawyer Primary School are not returning to in-person classes.

Exemplifying the Bahamas’ national motto “Forward, Upward, Onward, Together”, the university and the Bahamas Ministry of Education entered into a special partnership. For spring 2021, they agreed to move instruction from the CW Sawyer School to in-person classes at the university’s Oakes Field campus in Nassau. Further, they will follow Covid-19 safety protocols, including mask-wearing, social distancing, and availability of hand sanitizer. Lastly, primary school students will have the additional benefit of the university’s Wi-Fi system and local camp facilities.