Peeping Tom – WHAT ABOUT PHYSICS?

Jun 06, 2008 Peeping Tom

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I am a science aficionado and someone fervently concerned about the decline in the standards of science education in Guyana. This past week, my concern was deepened when I picked up the newspaper and saw an advertisement inviting our secondary school students to register for places in the Sixth Forms of our secondary schools.

I went through the list carefully and found that while, for example, Queen’s College is offering Chemistry and Biology, it is not offering Physics. The same applies for Saint Stanislaus. The Bishops’ High School is also not offering any science subjects at all. In fact, if you wish to study Physics at the ‘A’ levels or the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Level (CAPE) in a public school you have to register at the President’s College or New Amsterdam Secondary, which are the only two schools offering all three of the core science subjects.

Many years ago, the Ministry of Education decided to stream the various sixth form schools to ensure that the limited human and physical resources were best utilized. Thus, some of the top schools catered for the Pure Science, others for the Social Sciences while others catered for the Arts.

Today, with more and more subjects such as Law, Sociology, Accounting, Environmental Science, Information Technology, Food and Nutrition, Business Management, Electrical and Electronic Technology, Computer Science etc being offered at CAPE, there is an urgent need to re-stream our secondary schools to avoid a situation where a core science subject such as Physics is not being offered at any of the three top secondary schools in the city in the Sixth Forms.

Students with a bias for science may wish to study all three of the core science subjects: Physics, Biology and Chemistry and to twin these with the study of Pure and Applied Mathematics. On the other hand there are those studying Computer Science and Information Technology who require a solid foundation in mathematics since this subject is at the very heart of the study of Information Science. You cannot really master computer studies and information technology unless you are well grounded in mathematics.
Then there are some students who may wish to study accounting and business management. Here again there is need for the streaming of at least one of our senior secondary schools to cater for the business stream. Some schools can even stream in more than one area such as business and languages. Another school can cater for the arts and the humanities.

A natural form of streaming has already developed over the years. For example Queen’s College traditionally was the premier school for science and Bishops’ High for Arts. I think Saint Stanislaus can be developed into the information technology centre.

The present arrangement that we have will cause problems since they do not offer the ideal options for students who wish to be streamed in particular areas. I urge the Ministry to reexamine this configuration since I cannot see how physics is not being offered in any of the senior secondary schools in Georgetown which are offering Chemistry and Biology

Reconfiguring the subject areas offered would also assist in the allocation of resources since school laboratories, libraries, teaching staff and other support resources can be developed around the new streaming that is put in place.

I hope that the Ministry of Education responds to these suggestions and especially to the teaching or rather lack of teaching of physics at the ‘A’ levels in our secondary schools.

I also hope that they will eliminate this silly imposition that all students must do Communication and Caribbean Studies. Now, if a child’s long term goal is to pursue a profession in the medical field, that child would obviously have to contend with a great deal of work in both chemistry and biology and perhaps physics and mathematics. Why should that child have to also carry at the ‘A’ levels, Communication and Caribbean Studies. For what reasons are these subjects compulsory?

A lot of these things are fallbacks to that era of cooperative socialism when our students were burdened with all manner of nonsense as part of their school curricula. That era should be set aside.

I have a great deal of belief in the judgment of the present Minister of Education, Mr. Shaik Baksh. I have been listening to him and while I think he is trying to pour new wine into old skins, something that is bound to result in frustration and wasted efforts, he has some very good ideas that if properly implemented can bring about a revolutionary changes in our education system.

One of those changes that is urgently needed in our society today, is greater emphasis on the Pure Sciences, something that I believe has practical value for all our citizens. I therefore urge the Minister to examine this serious problem of Physics not being offered as an elective in any of the senior secondary schools in Guyana.

This column shall in later weeks attempt to reawaken interest in the sciences by running a series of columns on issues within these subjects that are of both topical and public interest and which can be read and enjoyed by persons of every age and disposition.

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