Accreditation yes; technical skills, no

Oct 25, 2009 Features / Columnists, My Column

By Adam Harris

I recalled that there was talk of equivalence of certificates. Guyana has many institutions some of them prominent like the Government Technical Institute and other related institutes, the various schools of nursing, and the like.
When Guyana set up the University of Guyana in 1964 there was talk that there was already the University of the West Indies. Guyanese began to doubt the quality of the education that the local university would offer would be up to standard. Some called it Jagan night school.
Indeed, the administration of the University of the West Indies thought that Guyana need not set up the institution. Today, the University of Guyana is attracting people from across the Caribbean and even further afield because its degree has been recognized.
This came about because there were thinkers who sought advice about equivalency and they approached the Caribbean Accreditation Council for help. That help was forthcoming and there is now a Guyana Accreditation Council. It means that the local authorities can now accredit the various institutions that offer some form of academic training.
In the past two decades, for example, there have been a number of private institutions each offering some certificate or the other. People were asked to pay for these certificates. But of what use is a certificate if it has no value to the holder?
For example, there are many people who report for job interviews with a host of computer certificates, most of them meaningless.
And so it was this past week that I began to wonder whether these many institutions ever sought to become accredited. And it should be a criminal offence for people to pretend to offer a certificate that would be meaningless.
The world is a global village these days and countries keep losing skills to countries that need them. At one time, the United States had everything until its people shunned certain jobs. That country was left with no option but to recruit people from foreign lands. Indeed, there was also the desire to procure skills that appeared to be lagging in that country.
So it was how the place in California called Silicon Valley has so many Indians, Japanese and other foreigners.
This is also responsible for the recruitment drives, some of which were targeted at Guyana. Teachers became scarce as Guyana was a ready source with a focus on trained teachers. The certificate that the Cyril Potter College of Education offered became readily accepted because of the Accreditation Council.
It is the same with the nursing certificate. People often say that the certificate is meaningless because the nurses still have to write the examinations. If the truth be told, people from one state seeking employment in another state must also write examinations.
The nursing certificate is good enough to get the local nurses into an institution and it gives them a head start because they are not expected to pursue courses from scratch. But what about skilled certificates?
The technical institutes were once famed for producing people with excellent technical know- how. There were the masons, the electricians and the mechanics. The certificates were duly recognised.
This is still the case except that the country does not place too much emphasis on such skills. And this is a mistake because each year at least 6,000 children who offer the CXC do not make it. They are therefore left to fend for themselves because there are just not enough facilities offering a technical vocational programme.
And the authorities seem none too keen to boost this area of study. Take the Carnegie School of Home Economics. The certificate offered there is good for any hotel in the region. That institution was duly accredited. I understand that the local hotels also accept them but to watch the number of students who go there leaves one to wonder.
It could be that the school is no longer seen as an alternative to academic education. It is perhaps the same with the Government Technical Institute which is still one of the schools that helps upgrade people if they want to pursue certain courses at the University of Guyana.
Why then are children not directed to these institutions that offer a technical vocation? It must be because there is no such programme in schools. The result is that we do not now have the skills that once abound. Parents are none the wiser and the result is that the streets are becoming overcrowded with young people who want things and see only one way of getting them-violently and at the expense of others.

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