A deplorable school situation

Nov 11, 2010 Editorial

Something must be horribly wrong with the system of education in Guyana. We have from time to time noted the correlation between crime and education. Indeed, criminal activities have reached new heights with people in increasing numbers doing the unthinkable.
There was a time when people in Guyana never bothered to secure their homes the way they do today. A bolt was enough to secure a door and it was the same with windows. The poorer folk would have placed a chair or some similar object to prevent the door from being forced open if the bolt was nothing to shout about. A brick house was the domestic equivalent of a fortress.
All that has changed. People convert their homes to veritable prisons and a brick wall is nothing more than a nuisance. Some criminals simply smash their way through the wall.
Where a piece of wood was enough to ward off a criminal; these days the home owner must count on surprise and perhaps some sub machine gun. Times have changed for the worse.
The people who perpetrate these crimes are those who are not far removed from the basic animal that sees something and without putting too much thought into the action and certainly with no thought of the consequences, go after the object of their attention.
The reason for this is simple. The absence of a proper education has led to a more dangerous criminal. People are now of the view that if a gunman, illiterate as most now come, should approach you then the chance of him shooting you without any provocation is almost certain. One can reason with an educated person; one cannot do that with an illiterate.
The Education Ministry seems to be contributing to illiteracy in the country. At Bagotville we found a school at which there is only one teacher and there are six classes. This teacher is head teacher and staff rolled up in one. Of course, at small schools it is not unusual that a head must also teach but for one to expect that an individual can teach six classes at the same time is expecting much more than a miracle.
The parents put the situation succinctly. They said that when the teacher is engaged with one class the others enjoy a vacation. The result is that the children will complete their primary education little better than dunces. How can this be in a day and age when the government is spending millions of dollars to improve the education system?
Just a few months ago, the Education Minister, addressing the graduation ceremony of the Cyril Potter College of Education, said that Guyana was producing teachers in increasing numbers and that there was beginning to be a problem of overstaffing rather than a shortage. He certainly did not know that Bagotville Primary School existed.
The parents said that this situation of one teacher for the school has been so for as long as five years. They said that from time to time, when they made some noise, the regional education officer would borrow a teacher from a school and have her placed at Bagotville for a day. They are now saying that the system is discriminating against the people of Bagotville. While this may be the case, it is even worse than that.
The people who fail to grasp and education will not torment Bagotville alone. The situation also exposes the slackness that prevails at the regional administrative level. How can there be only one teacher at a school with six classes and the administration not know, given that the school is just across the river from Georgetown and a few kilometers from the administrative centre—less than ten kilometers.
We have since learnt that the Education Ministry is moving to sanction the headmistress for dereliction of duty. She failed to teach six classes at the same time. The Ministry must be made to explain why this situation exists at a school not far from the city. This is an embarrassment.

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