180 Barbados is entering another hurricane season with tens of thousands of homes still uninsured, raising concerns about the island’s financial resilience in the face of increasingly frequent and costly natural disasters, Barbados TODAY has learned.  Industry figures have warned that too many property owners remain without insurance protection despite the island’s continued exposure to hurricanes, flooding and earthquakes. While approximately 40 000 homes currently carry insurance coverage, a significant number remain uninsured for a variety of reasons, said the General Insurance Association of Barbados (GIAB), responding to questions from Barbados TODAY. “Property owners should not only be concerned during [a] hurricane.   “Barbados faces multiple natural hazards, including earthquakes and floods. Even moderate events can result in costly damage. Insurance is a critical financial safeguard for both individuals and the wider economy.” According to the GIAB, some homeowners choose to self-insure, while other properties do not meet underwriting requirements because...

54 About 6 000 fisherfolk are set to benefit from a pioneering insurance mechanism that will release funds before hurricanes strike, giving them critical time to secure vessels and livelihoods, Barbados TODAY can reveal. The ground-breaking programme, initiated by the government, was developed jointly by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility), the regional insurance facility that provides quick payouts after catastrophic events.  This first-of-its-kind initiative —  known as an anticipatory action (AA) mechanism —  is designed to release funds to vulnerable fishing communities up to three days before a hurricane makes landfall – well before losses and damages materialise – giving fishers the time and means to secure their boats, remove their engines, protect their equipment and seek shelter, ultimately reducing the risk of lost lives and livelihoods.  AA mechanisms are forecast-based financing tools designed to release...

7 West Indies captain Hayley Matthews said her side is “still not quite firing with the bat” after suffering a 35-run defeat to England at the ICC T20 World Cup on Wednesday. The loss in the top-of-the-table Group Two clash denied the West Indies Women an opportunity to secure an automatic semifinal berth with a game to spare, but qualification remains within reach ahead of Saturday’s clash with Ireland. “It’s all in our hands and I think the fact that it is all in our hands puts us in a wonderful position. I think coming into this World Cup, if you’d said to us we just have to beat Ireland in the last match and we’d have a semifinal spot, we’d have grabbed the opportunity with both hands,” Matthews said in a post match interview. “I think we’re still not quite firing with the bat. I still haven’t got runs,...

4 Education officials have underscored the value of soft skills among youth as part of the framework for preparing for the world of work, with over 300 students from 16 secondary schools graduating from the Preparing Today for Tomorrow’s Challenges – Transforming Children’s Lives (PTFTC-TCL) programme. The recognition ceremony, now in its tenth year, saw the latest cohort of students awarded for their participation in the skills training programme conducted in collaboration with the University of the West Indies and the Ministry of Education, with funding from the Sandals Foundation. Speaking at Sandals Royal Barbados on Wednesday, acting Chief Education Officer Julia Beckles underscored the need for more than academic qualifications. Acting Chief Education Officer Julia Beckles. (Photo Credit: Lourianne Graham) “Employees and communities and employers increasingly value individuals who can communicate clearly, work collaboratively, manage conflict constructively, demonstrate professionalism, and build positive relationships, and this is all that you...

40 Caribbean nations must boost judicial cooperation with European counterparts if they are to dismantle sophisticated transnational criminal networks, a senior United Nations official in the region said on Wednesday.   Deputy Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Stephanie Ziebell, told a workshop on Caribbean-European Union judicial cooperation through EUROJUST Focal Points at Hotel Indigo, Hastings, that cross-border collaboration has become essential in combating modern crime. “Today’s criminal threats do not respect borders,” she said, noting that organised crime, financial crime, cyber-enabled offences and other forms of transnational criminal activity increasingly require countries to work together. “In this context, international cooperation is no longer a specialised function. It has become an essential component of modern criminal justice systems.” The ability of countries to communicate effectively, share information efficiently and coordinate actions across jurisdictions was critical to tackling criminal organisations that operate beyond national...

163 The 11-year-old Head Girl of St George Primary School, Skai Cox, who placed seventh islandwide and emerged as the top female performer at her school in this year’s 11-Plus examination, said she was always confident that Harrison College would be her next destination. “I wasn’t really too nervous,” Cox recalled of the examination period. After the test, she said she was simply “happy to have that off my schedule”. Her performance added to a strong showing by St George Primary School, which produced two students in the island’s top ten. Preparation for the examination involved Saturday lessons and additional classes during the Easter vacation. “Well, I started doing lessons on Saturdays,” she said, adding that students also attended lessons during the Easter break. Now preparing to leave the school where she served as Head Girl, Cox acknowledged mixed emotions. You Might Be Interested In “Well, I’m sad. I’ll be...

66 Teachers’ union leader Rudy Lovell has urged primary school graduates to take full responsibility for their future, warning that success will depend not on chance but on discipline, resilience and sustained effort. In a speech to the graduating class of Cuthbert Moore Primary School, Barbados Union of Teachers President Rudy Lovell declared that academic success and personal destiny are not matters of chance, but the fruits of relentless hard work, discipline and unwavering resilience. Lovell challenged the youngsters to take full ownership of their futures as they transition into the secondary school system.  Cuthbert Moore Primary graduating class of 2026. (Photo credit: Ricardo Roberts/Barbados TODAY) Speaking on the graduation theme, Destiny, a dream achieved by hard work, Lovell noted that graduation is far more than a mere ceremonial milestone. Instead, he described it as tangible proof of what happens when human dreams are fuelled by effort, sacrifice and deep...

14 The privately run Anglican primary school, St Cyprian’s Boys’, is celebrating an impressive performance in this year’s Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (BSSEE), with student Kaden Ward securing joint second place islandwide and helping to end what Principal Dave Layne described as an outstanding year for the school. Layne revealed that the school recorded an average of 80 per cent in English and 86.6 per cent in Mathematics among the 30 boys who sat the examination. “The highest individual performance this year, our boy, Kaden Ward, who was second on the island, joint second with 244.8 A,” he said. “He scored 100 in math and 94 in English.” Kaden Ward, top performer at Cyprian’s Boys’ School and joint second place islandwide in BSSEE. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla/Barbados TODAY) The principal said the results reflected the hard work of both students and teachers, noting that 18 of the 30 students...

30 A long-time parliamentarian and the labour minister have thrown their support behind the depositors insurance bill, calling it consistent with the credit union principle of “people helping people”. The Protection of Depositors Insurance Bill was passed in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, which the lawmakers described as a timely move to create inclusion for ordinary Bajans and small businesses who lacked a safety net in the event their credit union failed or was destroyed. Christ Church West MP Dr William Duguid said the legislation completed work started two decades ago when deposit insurance protection was extended to commercial banks. The legislation would end what he described as a two-tier system where bank depositors enjoyed protection while credit union members did not, he said. “This nullifies this two-tier system. We in Barbados don’t want a two-tier system, that only the banks got the coverage and the credit unions ain’t...

2 Barbados needs wider insurance coverage across key sectors such as housing and agriculture to reduce the financial burden on the state after disasters, Economic Affairs Minister Marsha Caddle has warned, arguing that current protections remain too narrow despite new safeguards for credit union deposits. During Tuesday’s debate on the Protection of Depositors Bill, which will provide insurance cover to credit union members’ savings, Caddle argued that while deposit insurance was an important step, similar protections were needed across other sectors of the economy. “That this bill strengthens and makes insurance accessible to credit union depositors is key,” she said. “But frankly, so are all the other kinds of insurance.” Caddle noted that countries such as Barbados, which are on the frontline of the climate crisis, continue to face challenges financing recovery efforts after disasters. She said part of the problem is the relatively low penetration of insurance across sectors...