The education system is in decay

Nov 30, 2010 Editorial

The education system forces one to recall the words of the hymn ‘Abide with me’. There is a line in that hymn that says, ‘Change and decay all around I see’. That is so apt at this time because there is change and decay in the system. The change is seen in the many additions and examinations. The most significant of these changes is the fact that a child does not need to learn or to perform in order to gain promotion to another class of form.
The decay is evident in the large number of illiterates in the society. This is most remarkably seen in the quality of children who leave schools at the highest forms and not being able to read at the Grade One level.
There are other changes that merit attention. One of these has to do with the quality of teachers assigned to prepare the child for an education. These are the children now entering into the formal education system.
In the past, there was the view that it took a special skill to teach these children whose attention span is very short but who, like a sponge, assimilate whatever is thrown their way once their attention is caught. Recognising this, skilled people nurtured the young so that they left their innocent days capable at least of recognising numbers and figures. They were also able to grasp basic concepts. This ability enabled many parents to boast that their children were reading by age four. Such children went on, if not to be geniuses, to be literate and did well later in life.
Something must have gone horribly wrong for there to be the change and decay we now see. Today, some of the most inexperienced people are put to teach the very young. Many of these so-called teachers have not themselves grasped the rudiments of learning and speaking. They are not aware that what they impart to the children is what is taken as gospel.
Many parents would testify to having the devil’s own job convincing children that they were being taught something wrong. The child invariably swore by “Miss”, the teacher. What is even more worrying is that the children more often than not, leave the preparatory classes unable to even recognise the letters of the alphabet. They would often continue in this vein until they leave school as illiterate as when they first entered. The examples revealed by the Headmaster of the Wismar Secondary School by themselves tell a sad story of a decline in education so rapid that one is left to wonder about what is happening in the schools.
About a decade ago some people begged the Education Ministry to reconsider retired teachers because many of the skilled ones were leaving on offers from foreign countries. These skilled teachers were accepting the offers because the pay was good and because they like so many Guyanese have that desire to migrate.
The Education Ministry, it would seem, was more concerned with numbers than quality to the extent that at one stage it even lowered the entrance qualifications to the teacher-training institution. The government is also complicit in this because despite the calls from every quarter, it has refused to adjust the age of retirement.
Guyana is a small country and skills are certainly not at a premium. If the aim is to provide the younger people with an incentive to work to reach the top, the plan has backfired because the very young people are simply not educated.
The Education Ministry is now talking about remedial reading but one is left to believe that the same teachers who fail to impart knowledge to the students in the system are being asked to conduct the remedial classes. If the teacher is a failure during regular school hours how can the very teacher be expected to correct any deficiency in the child who is now in need of remedial training?
There is a basic rule in the Education system. If a child has not learnt then a teacher has not taught. Most of the children leaving school seem not to have learnt. And indeed, there is evidence that the teachers are not teaching. Many leave their classes to head for the University of Guyana where they will obtain a certificate or a degree that is often not related to the teaching profession.
People talk about paying the teachers more. Others say that any hike in pay for the teachers should be based on performance. It would seem that the government is not prepared to go down this road. The result is that the schools are producing illiterate children who are easy fodder for the criminal enterprise and we are already seeing the results.

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The education system is in decay

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