OUT OF CONTROL? WHAT ELSE COULD BE EXPECTED?

Jun 13, 2010 News

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– Clarence O. Perry – Part 5

What actions are essential for the implementation of a system of quality education?
In Part 4, I outlined eight characteristics of an education system that is both appropriate and adequate to meet the challenge of constructive social change in Guyana, minimize violence in schools, and ultimately in the wider Guyanese society.
The question now is: “What actions are essential for the implementation of a system of quality education?”
First, we must make quality education (not just schooling) for every Guyanese a Human Right enshrined in the Constitution of Guyana.   If this is accomplished it will represent the most important step that any government can take in the struggle to reduce poverty (a seedbed of violence) among Guyanese.
What is more, it will make the government of Guyana legally and morally bound to provide each and every Guyanese child, not only with the same quantity of education (the same number of years in school), but also, with the same quality of education so that the needs of each and every child will be met.
At present this responsibility is being abrogated – hence the burgeoning development of the private sector in education for those who can afford to pay, at the expense of the public sector (government or public schools), which is more or less being allowed to wither on the vine and decay.    This is tantamount to sowing the seeds of a fractured society (the “haves” versus the “have-nots”), and ultimately, class warfare.
Professor Elsa Leo-Rhynie, a former Deputy Principal of Mona Campus, University of the West Indies, in the Caribbean Education Annual (Volume V1  2000-2001), challenges educators in the Caribbean to craft a system of education more relevant to the needs of Caribbean youth and the Caribbean.
We must build a quality education system to meet the needs of Guyanese students and teachers, and the needs of the Guyanese society at large.
This means that our national university (the hub or the heart of the system) must be adequately resourced and supported so that this institution can effectively meet the needs of a quality education system.    It is the university that will be responsible for educating and training quality educational leaders and teachers to staff quality schools.
We must realize that we can never have a quality education system unless we have quality schools.   Further, we can never have quality schools unless all teachers, at all levels, and in all regions and communities are adequately educated (not just trained).
Teachers must be competent professionals, who possess the capacity to discover, nurture and develop the innate potentials of all their students.   Teachers must also be role models of democratic, rational citizens in pursuit of life-long learning and intellectual development.
In short, teachers must have the will and the capacity to transform current education practice in Guyana.   This is not the total requirement  for a democratic, modern and prosperous Guyanese nation, with the capacity for sustainable growth and development, but it is the cornerstone, the foundation – the sine qua non.
In a Guyanese system of quality education the processes of education will be so structured and organized, that it will inculcate a more humane value system.   A value system that teaches respect for diversity, self-discipline, to be our brothers and sisters keepers, to value each other, to value cooperation and team spirit, honesty, truth and to live by the “golden rule”: “treat others as you would like to be treated”
From a human development perspective this rule is at the heart of any worthwhile environmental studies program.   We must be made to realize, sooner rather than later, that everything is connected to everything else everywhere.
All youth should experience the “oneness” with all life, to recognize the unity in all the diversity and to treasure that which is common to all living things – life.   We are all in the same boat.   We have got to paddle together or we will all be consumed by torrents of hate and violence.
Second, it is absolutely essential that we redraft the Education Bill 2008.   In its present form it will return us to the nineteenth century – the dark ages.   Indeed, if a foreign nation had drafted the Guyana Education Bill 2008, we would have regarded it as an act of war.
The urgent need is to democratize and modernize the practices and processes of education in Guyana.   The current draft Education Bill 2008 is anti-education, undemocratic and is most certainly a giant step backwards.
It will severely constrain the development of some of Guyana’s scarcest resources – creativity, mind power, initiative, leadership, and professionalism.
And what is worse, it will, most certainly, discourage teachers from taking responsibility for what happens in their classrooms.
When the potential of a country was judged by the amount of natural resources in the ground, Guyana was said to be a country with huge potential.   Now that a country’s potential is judged by the quality of the ideas that come out of the heads of its citizens, Guyana has only very limited potential.
Since the citizens of a country are regarded as that country’s greatest resource, then our national focus must now be on comprehensive human development – “from the cradle to the grave”.
Third, we must not to put new wine into old wine skins.   We, therefore, need to establish a new “super” Ministry:   “The  Ministry  of  Human Development”.    This new Ministry will be formed by the integration of two ministries: The Ministry of Education and The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.
The integration of these two Ministries into a “super” ministry responsible for comprehensive human development will ensure the all-round development of all Guyanese youth.
An ideal location for this new Ministry would be in the former D’Urban Park race course.
The new Ministry can be organized into two divisions: The Division of Lower and General Education (Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary); and, The Division of Higher or Postsecondary Education (University, Institutes and Continuing Professional Education).
The person chosen to lead this new ministry must be a transformational leader and a practical visionary.
I am fully aware that in thinking about any serious education reform, it is essential to consider what it means for teachers.
Teachers are central to what happens in education.   However, the omission of pre-service teacher education as a direct responsibility of the new Ministry is deliberate.   It must be accepted that teaching in these times is far more difficult than it ever was in the past.
Every day teachers face numerous social and professional challenges.    Therefore, they must be adequately prepared in order to perform effectively.    Since the nation is blessed with a national university that possesses a School of Education, this new Ministry should not be burdened with the pre-service education of teachers for which the national university is far better equipped and resourced.
It would be an injustice to the teacher candidates and ultimately to this nation if these young aspiring Guyanese professionals are deprived of the benefits (for example, a greater variety of role models) that are available within a university environment.

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