PUBLIC RESOURCES AND PRIVATE GAIN

Sep 12, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Not many people fully appreciate that private education was reintroduced in Guyana through the extra-lessons syndrome. As such extra lessons must be seen as one of the means through which the private sector has been able to fill a void caused by the failures in the formal educational system.
No sooner had private schools disappeared in Guyana, it became clear that free education was a considerable burden on national resources. With a declining economy this burden could no longer be sustained. Books became short, and parents accustomed to not visiting the bookstore soon found they had to scurry to secure text books which were necessary for their children’s education.
School building began to decline, as the public education system was unable to cope with the management demands, a fact that is still lost on politicians today.
As hard times set in; as teachers began to sell sugar cakes in the class room to supplement their earnings, the system began to lose its precious human resources.  Not many of our highly trained teachers were willing to forego greener pastures to remain in a rewarding system that was becoming highly politicized.
With the huge migration of teachers, particularly to better paying jobs in the Caribbean, and with an already limited pool of trained and qualified teachers, the situation within our public educational system soon became dire. This was made worse when political considerations became more dominant in terms of promotions and transfers within the system. The ultimate losers in all of this were, of course, the students of Guyana, who were forced to attend extra lessons, often held at the homes of the very teachers that taught them in schools.
It was no secret that a burgeoning extra lessons sector was developing just years after free education was introduced in Guyana. Even the children of some ministers of the government attended these classes in order to ensure that they did well at their examinations.
Doing well at examinations, particularly at the end of Form Five was necessary if students were to move on to good paying jobs or to university. Thus, a great attention then, just as it is now, was paid towards extra lessons.
The situation soon became a pandemic. Today there are extra lessons being taught from as early as Grade 5. And many of these lessons are held in government schools. The earnings from these lessons have helped many a teacher to survive the hard times and also to move into an economic comfort zone.
Many parents are not happy with having to fork out the precious thousands each month to send their kids to extra lessons. For this reason there will always be public support for any decision taken by the Ministry of Education to regulate extra-lessons in public schools.
The decision by the Minister of Education to disallow the teaching of extra lessons in public schools should be seen apart from its stated objective in ensuring that parent and teachers are not exploited. It should also be seen as a means not to allow government school buildings to be used free of cost for private gain.
Of course, charging a rent for use of schools for extra lessons will prove to be an additional administrative headache for the Ministry of Education. How much does one charge? And how does one deal with a situation where students from other schools have to come to another school for extra lessons?
How does one deal with the security concerns after school hours. I have seen one particular school where students from miles away come for extra lessons in the afternoons. At dismissal time, there is always a traffic jam as hundreds of children pour out of the extra lessons classrooms.
I believe that the government is entitled to rent for the use of these classrooms. On weekends also, many schools are converted into churches and I am not aware of any policy with respect to the fees paid for such use of public schools by religious groups.
The best option is for extra lessons and weekly religious functions to be outlawed from schools. The occasional community meeting and concert may be permitted for a fee, paid to the school under guidelines set by the Ministry of Education, but there should be no regular use of school buildings for church services which is a regular feature at schools on weekends.
Teachers, I am sure will find private buildings to rent for extra lessons. This will be good for the property market also, and ensure that taxpayers’ property are not used for private gain, a fundamental principle that the government needs to enforce over and beyond the extra lessons issue.
Whether it is extra lessons or private investment, public resources should not be used to fatten the coffers of anyone, rich or poor. Know what I mean?

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