Where are all the Social Studies specialists?

May 28, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
As a university student, I am appalled at the poor and antiquated methods of data storage especially that which relates to Guyana. Recently, an assignment given asked for the development of the Social Studies (a subject taught in Guyana’s schools).
Do you believe everywhere I turned prove to be stonewall? The internet was no help at all. The internet hardly has information about our local Guyanese situation, much less historical information and statistics about the Social Studies in Guyana.
I telephoned the National Centre for Research Educational Development (NCERD) thinking that they would be of help to me. I was wrong. They had no information for me and quickly forwarded me to Mr. David Granger, who writes for the Guyana Review supplement in the SN.
To date, I have not heard from Mr. Granger, nor does anyone seem to want to divulge his top secret phone number to me.
Where are all the curriculum specialists at NCERD? Where are the persons who wrote all those Social Studies textbooks in Guyana? Poor Social Studies, such an exciting subject area and virtually nobody has historical data about it.
This is so bad for a country wanting to head forward into this 21st Century. We cannot even access pertinent information for research purposes. Now, I figured the topic ‘Social Studies’ may have been one with a little difficulty to access information about, but where are all the Social Studies specialists in Guyana?
Where are the researches that have been done in this curriculum area over the years? I was made to understand that the Social Studies were not even called by that name until way after Independence.
In fact, the subject was done separately: History, Geography and Civic Education. It was not until much, much later that the Social Studies were brought to Guyana after being introduced in the Caribbean region, as an integrated way to deal with the social sciences. I could remember also doing National Policy as a subject in primary school. This subject dealt with our national symbols and other aspects of our national identity as Guyanese.
That subject is no longer being done. The Social Studies are being offered at CXC and at the University of Guyana.
I tell you, we really need to step up when it comes to carrying out research and storing the information for future use and reference.
Why not put this information on the internet where we know they would be permanently stored and quickly retrieved by stakeholders from any part of the world?
Why do we have an influx of material from other countries, about other countries, and very little about our own and matters of academic and curriculum research and information on the World Wide Web?
Storing this information on paper has proven unbeneficial because these can be easily destroyed by a fire. And Guyana is prone to lots of fires which have destroyed very important record-keeping buildings in the past.
Let’s face facts: in Guyana, there is really nowhere proper where someone can turn to look up historical information on virtually any subject. I am therefore urging all organisations, persons, etc, to make sure that they store their information properly and effectively so that generations to come would be able to read about them and make use of them.
If it is going to be stored on paper, I wouldn’t recommend it; electronic storage may just be the answer. I would also suggest that something be done immediately to start storing all information and historical records in electronic format. We have to start somewhere and sometime to really make use of technology.
And I would certainly like to put my research paper, when I am finished, on the internet. I certainly would not want others to endure what I did.
Leon Suseran

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Where are all the Social Studies specialists?

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