Education Needs

Apr 19, 2010 Editorial

As a small, poor, developing country, no one can deny that we desperately need to upgrade the skills and training of our population. Of the countries that have pulled themselves out of poverty since the middle of the last century, the common denominator that undergirds their success is the focus on the education of their populace.

In the new globalised world, the mere possession of resources does not guarantee a nation a place at the table – educated workforces have catapulted possession-less states like Singapore to the top while we, with all our “potential”, are firmly stuck at the bottom.

It is not that the administration has not appreciated the fundamental importance of education: its spending on this sector since it came into office has been exemplary. The primary and secondary schools have received the most attention and the inexorable improvement in their overall performance is heartening. In the post-secondary/tertiary segment, however, the outlook has been somewhat spotty.

The medical school and the law programme at UG, the Cyril Potter Teachers’ Training College and the several nursing programmes have performed credibly. It is a pity that their contribution to our national development is constantly undermined by the inducements of the developed countries to their graduates.

It is in the areas of technical expertise such as engineering, agricultural and computer science and business management etc. that we have lagged. And it is in these areas that we will have to focus if we are ever going to be successful in our struggle to drag ourselves out of poverty. But we may be facing a chicken and egg question here: where do we get the money to establish the institutions necessary to deliver these products?

Well, a top notch Business School should be within our reach. One outfit from T&T has been traipsing around Georgetown promising Executive MBAs at some US$20,000 a head. Basically what they will be doing is to contract some teachers from institutions in and outside the region to give their lessons at some rented space. Surely, UG could deliver better and more appropriately designed business degrees by utilising the same principle of recruitment of teachers at that price.

For the other areas, we will have to depend in the near term, on scholarships secured from friendly countries. In the beginning of its arc of development, this was the path chosen by the visionary leader of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew and it proved to be very successful.

We must have a policy on this matter and we cannot afford to let it rest on the happenstance of a few countries, such as Mexico, deciding to throw a few bones our way. When President Jagdeo decided to lobby Cuba for an expansion of training of doctors that had been in train since the seventies, he was spectacularly successful. In a few years, our per capita ratio of doctors to population should reach a quite healthy number. We have to do the same with engineering etc.

There must be some planning by our policy makers as to exactly what skills will be demanded by the execution of the development plans that are already in train. Take the area of petroleum exploration, drilling, extraction, transportation etc.

We know for sure that sooner or later, we will strike oil: we should not wait until that happens and then complain that foreigners are earning all the big bucks while our people remain relegated to being porters and cooks. Then there are the budding fields of agricultural research and forestry conservation that are covered by the LCDS. Where will the expertise come from?

One country that we should be most actively lobbying for advanced training is Brazil. Our giant neighbour has built world-class institutions in all the subject areas in which we need training.

This is not a coincidence: we share very similar geographical features and colonial history but they have had the benefit of size and a longer independent history to develop their potential.

With the opening of the Takutu Bridge, we are on the cusp of an era of heightened contact with Brazil. To ensure that we are not always at the losing end of that relationship – as we presently are with the rest of the world – we can do worse than negotiating with them for scholarships for needed skills.

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