A case for critical thinking

Aug 21, 2010 Editorial

The results of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate are now out. Schools and teachers would be very proud; parents would proudly display their children’s achievements; and of course, the children would be wearing smiles for a very long time.
Of course, this would be true for about twenty per cent of those who wrote the examinations because pass rates these days are not as large as they should be. There are many reasons for this.
Having examined the situation over the years one is left to wonder whether there is any ongoing analysis of the examination results. Earlier this year, Education Minister Shaik Baksh said that there was some analysis but that the findings have not been studied to allow for any adjustment in the system.
Perhaps the time is now for the Ministry to develop a unit to analyse the results. We are aware of the percent passes in the various subjects—English was said to be about thirty-five per cent, Mathematics about twenty-eight per cent and Science, about thirty per cent.
We know that all schools introduce the children to the sciences from an early level but this slows down as the children attain higher levels. There are just no teachers to take them further along in every school with the result that the science subjects become foreign entities.
We have belaboured the point that Guyana has lost a lot of its skilled teachers to foreign countries either because they, the teachers, felt that they were grossly underpaid or because of the promise of living in a country other than in the land of their birth.
We expect that the pass grades in Mathematics, Science and to a lesser extent, English, would be consistent with past years because we have never been able to produce teachers in large quantities to handle these subject areas.
Guyana is not unique. It is the same in every English-speaking Caribbean country, because none has been able to resist the pull from the developed world, which has also lost its skilled people to the oil-rich countries and to the large growing economies that pay any price for their development.
The world is looking at the Asian tigers — Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan. And of course, there is China which is tipped to become the largest economy in the world in the not too distant future.
The English-speaking Caribbean countries, however, could never match those because they never had the financial resources to do so. Guyana, which has been relegated to the poorer of the poor, has been among the worst hit. Calls have been made for the government to allocate even larger resources to the education system, but it has not been able to do so. The government insists that it simply cannot do so and address the other social services.
But for all the talk that the education system in Guyana is declining, there are those in the other English-speaking countries who insist that the Guyanese students are among the best; that they always do well at foreign institutions.
It may be a case of those students, ever aware that they need to try harder than most, really bending their backs to the wheel. They were brought up in institutions where not too much emphasis is placed on extra-curricula activities; where they were taught that the books were all that mattered.
One may argue that the end result is all that matters but the employers would know differently. They expect rounded personalities, people who could adapt to any situation in the workplace.
Many of the top performers would proceed to become lawyers and doctors. Very few would become engineers and even fewer would gravitate to be agricultural specialists who are always in demand in a developing country like Guyana.
There is also another concern. Many of the children who would achieve passing grades have been described as being functionally illiterate. They have learnt by rote and therefore never develop what is known as critical thinking.
The examinations, except for a few subject areas, do not require critical thinking, which was something that the older examinations did. It may do well for the Education system to reintroduce reasoning in the classroom. The growth in the results may be astounding.
But then again, we would need a new breed of teachers who themselves can think critically.

Latest News

A case for critical thinking

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 14th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

The Battle for Barbados: One Guyana Racing Stable faces off against...

Tyrrell breaks 12-year-old school record to claim...

Raja Pooran inspires Everest Masters to victory...

BCB saddened at the passing of the late Lennox...

Berbice Cricket Board names 15-man squad to...

Slingerz FC shines at Guyana Energy Conference...

Features/Columnists

Crowds, chaos and complaints

Why the U.S. Should Strengthen Trade Ties with the Caribbean

Guyanese leaders better learn from Ukraine

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

A case for critical thinking

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 14th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]