Guyana’s decision to import teachers

Feb 19, 2011 Editorial

For some time now Guyana has been seeking to improve its production of students equipped in the areas of Mathematics and Sciences. For more than a decade Guyana has been recording poor pass rates in these subject areas, largely because there were simply not enough teachers to impart knowledge.
This is because the very teachers themselves encountered people who made those subjects so difficult that the students were prepared to shy away from them. The result is that many Guyanese these days cannot do simple addition. To do basic computation they have to resort to calculators. It is not unusual to see grown people using fingers, and sometime toes, to do routine addition.
Long gone are the days when children were strangers to calculators. The introduction of this contraption was perhaps the start of the decline. Where are the logarithmic tables that were once a common book among the kit of middle school children? In fact, the mere word must be foreign to most.
It must be even worse in the field of science. At least, people must be able to count their money or to negotiate savings during their shopping expeditions. His would necessitate some basic addition and some cost analysis.
Housewives hard pressed to maintain a home on a pittance must be prepared to be a mathematics or a science expert. For her those attributes come naturally yet for her to transfer her knowledge into theoretical knowledge is an impossibility.
The old teachers of mathematics and science knew that those subjects were present in every aspect of everyday life. Some learnt basic scientific principles like light dispersion simply by looking at the formation of a rainbow. Once the interest was captivated other subject areas were similarly presented in interesting ways.
Mathematics at the most basic level was introduced to students of yore by using the examples to which the children would gravitate. Teachers used sweets and other confectionery, even sharing these and asking the children related questions. The absence of innovative teaching methods has led to the decline in people pursuing maths and science in schools.
At the same time, the government over the years, failed to pay those teachers in the system adequately and therefore lost them to migration. Indeed, the best brains followed the dollar. When the likely impact of this was broached the officials contended that the disappearance of the people would not have much of an impact.
One official said that the authorities would recruit in larger numbers to compensate for any loss. Certainly that has not worked and the government must take the harsh decision of recruiting teachers from overseas. The news came as a shock because Guyana has now joined the ranks of countries that can no longer boast of being leaders in literacy and numeracy.
The government had a chance to avert this move but it never took seriously, the loss of skills and the need to retain those who were in the system, even if they had attained the age of retirement. Guyana’s age of retirement in the public service is relatively low and often contributes to a waste of resources.
The nation now recognizes this but the government seems reluctant to move in the direction of extending the age of retirement. Had this been the case, many of the retired mathematics and science teachers would have been around, if only to be trainers of trainers.
There is now the worry that there would be some serious clashes with the recruited teachers and those who remain. For one thing, there would be the conflict involving remuneration packages. Certainly, the package for the recruited teachers would be heftier than that offered the locals because the low currency rate dictates that in real currency terms –the British Sterling or the United States dollar— the money offered must be attractive.
The government will be forced to provide some form of accommodation for the recruits. Has there been any discussion with the Guyana Teachers’ Union? We do know that the Teaching Service Commission is involved.
What this decision to recruit may lead to is an interesting salary scale for people who teach Mathematics and Science. And it is coming none too soon.

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Guyana’s decision to import teachers

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