The celebrations are in order, but so too is the worry

Jun 15, 2014 Features / Columnists, My Column

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The results of the Common Entrance are out. By now we have come to realise that the private schools have presented themselves as the place for one’s child if one expects his child to become somebody in the adult world.
One man who simply keeps making his mark is Wilfred Success, who came to prominence nearly 20 years ago when he had six children from West Ruimveldt Primary School placing in the top ten. Of course the nation did not take those results kindly; parents accused Success of cheating and sparked an investigation that I would never forget.
I was the editor for The Evening News when that happened. As a child who came from a poor family that could not afford to pay for extra lessons and one who did not grow in the average middle income community, I understood what had happened to those children from the suburban West Ruimveldt and Albouystown communities.
I invited Success to bring the children to the studios and he obliged. People had accused Success of getting copies of the examination papers and drilling the children. Many of them put forward their case as though they had overwhelming evidence and the officials at the Ministry of Education believed. They mounted an investigation.
Meanwhile the children, as all children who do well at those examinations, were proud. I asked them what had happened and they said that ‘Sir’ Wilfred taught, and when it was time for the exams, he used old examination papers.
Those children were no flash in the pan, because all one has to do is check on what they did. They performed very well at Queen’s College, so one can conclude that what they did at the Common Entrance was no fluke. Many, if not all of them are now parents with children of their own, preparing to write the Common Entrance, which these days is known as the National Grade Six Assessment.
The next year Wilfred Success proved that what he had done was no fluke, because once more he produced children in the top ten. Those who like the Education Ministry had stereotyped the children of West Ruimveldt Primary School began to sit up and to take notice. The Education Ministry also sat up and even attempted to transfer Success to one of those so-called high-flying schools. The good man declined and threatened to quit if the Ministry persisted.
Success did quit in the end, but now he has his own school. I remember talking to him about his skills as a teacher and he said that he teaches his children to think laterally, something that seems to have been replaced by rote learning.
Success now has his own school—the poor boy has become somebody—and those who once criticized him are having their grandchildren go to that school. Those with money are flooding the private schools and the once high-flying public schools are not flying so high.
But there is a more serious problem. Each year when we sit back and think, less than twenty-five per cent of children who write the examinations would go on to become reasonably productive people in the society. The others would simply limp through secondary school, not learning much and growing up to be the people who would torment the society.
Just a few days ago one of them, a 19-year-old whose name I was provided with, went to the very West Ruimveldt Primary School and robbed a teacher at gunpoint before her class.  The take was nothing outstanding, but it goes to show that these days, with the increasing number of criminals the pickings are slim; people are going to rob their victims of just about anything.
This situation is not unique to Guyana, but we could do something to change it. We could really spend money on technical education. But even more, we could release more money to pay teachers. In paying them, the Education Ministry could demand certain results; that is what is being done in the private schools where teachers know that they are on show.
But there needs to be something else; there needs to be parental support. I am heartened with what is happening at St Stephen’s Primary School. Teachers there are teaching parents, many of whom left school with precious little by way of literacy and numeracy. In so doing they are helping the parents to help their children study.
This programme is in its neonatal stage, so the results are not as evident, but we know that it is working. Indeed, the Education Ministry has also tried to help those who do not shine at the Grade Six Assessment. There is a remedial learning programme which is not as news-gripping as it should be. I understand that many of the children who need it do not even worry to attend these classes, content to be what they are.
I was once an educator and I saw what could happen with children from schools that are not expected to do well.  I taught at the Bartica Government Secondary School and during my tenure, children who were not expected to be much became doctors, professional nurses, teachers, agricultural officers and forestry officers. One young man is the kingpin of the Haags Bosch landfill site.
I know that many of those children who did not do much were not really given a chance because of the quality of teachers they face. I also know that unless we do something about the bottom fifty per cent of those who write the Grade Six Assessment, then walking the streets would become a nightmare. Even now, ordinary people with no more than a few dollars, perhaps enough to buy two bottles of beer, are robbed, some of them violently.

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