Falling standards in our education system

Jun 27, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
I wish to congratulate Rev. Cecil Gideon on the nice piece of writing in the Kaieteur News of June 17, captioned, ‘’The Decline of Education in Guyana”. And my congratulations go to you too on your Editorial. You did a splendid Editorial telling all and sundry about falling standards in our education system.
Very vividly I remember when the Mayor Mr. Hamilton Green (Prime Minister then) visited a Secondary School on the West Coast of Berbice in the early 1970’s he had some problem finding the headmaster; who was in one of the forms teaching English.
“Headmaster I expected to see you in your office” said the Prime Minister. “In order to get results one has to teach sometimes” said the Headmaster. Today standards have fallen badly.
Teachers do not teach grammar – parts of speech, figures of speech, syntax, because they themselves don’t know it. I am speaking generally. And Rev. Gideon ought to be given an award for writing fearlessly. I wonder if he is not afraid of victimization. Some of us are. People can be paid to wipe some of us off planet earth. Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver to do a dirty job. The name Jesus still lives. Nathuram V. Goad assassinated Gandhi who still lives in some of us.
Who took off from our primary schools the Nelson West Indian Readers – the red cover book, did our education system real mischief. The New Nelson West Indian Readers can never replace those books of earlier times.
The Introductory Reader – Nelson West Indian Reader (the red book) has in the first lesson and I quote from memory “1 cut my meat with a knife and hold it with a fork. I can stir my tea with a spoon”.
I tried asking children in forms 1, 2 and 3 to spell stir: They couldn’t. Again I quote “Our school has a ceiling but this house has none”. They couldn’t spell ceiling.
In the Book 5 West Indian Reader there is a beautiful piece of writing on The Destruction of Port Royal.
“Screams of anguish cries of horror were as quickly drowned by the rush of waters. Earth opened swallowing men and buildings.
“The sea breached and poured over the fortifications”
Can children of today preparing for the CXC do a piece of writing in their composition like this? And in the 1940’s–1950’s we who were preparing to write the Primary School Certificate Examination (School Leaving) had to read that stuff fluently much more write it.
Rev. Gideon knows his onions. He knows what I am talking about. The child of today wants his calculator, cell phone and ipod and has an empty head.
Gone are the days of Algebra Geometry and Arithmetic. The modern maths can never replace this.
A modern math teacher puts on her chalkboard this example:- -6 4 + 2 = When her pupils were stumped she told them that the answer is 26.
How? She said two negatives make a positive, -6 – 4 – 24 and then add 2.
She could not understand that 2 negatives make a positive is for multiplication.
The answer for the above is 8. Hats off to you Mr. Editor and hats off to you too Rev. Gideon.
I wish that Latin be taught in our secondary Schools. This would be a fillip to our English Language.
Arnold Persaud

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