Revamping the education system

Aug 18, 2011 Editorial

Countries improve because the people try to improve themselves. This leads to all-round development to the extent that one sees inventions, discoveries and even modifications that enhance what already existed.
For example, there was the windscreen wiper but that has been modified so often that today people cannot even remember what the first wipers were like. The bottom line is that they all serve the function for which they were invented. Cars are far different from what they were when they first made their appearance.
Up until a few decades the crank was an integral part of the accessories for cars and lorries. The crank has disappeared. No individual under 30 years old can say what a crank looked like. Other examples are the computer and the camera.
But it is the human aspect of development that is crucial to everything. The way of the world is that once one is employed it is difficult for one to squeeze out of the job to pursue additional studies. We become too complacent in the job. Many of the people in Guyana today pursued a job, became employed and depended on seniority for promotion.
At one time this was so in the field of education. People entered the system at the lowest level and through seniority, reached a certain level, beyond which would have seen them promoted beyond the level of their competence. As Guyana was reaching for independence the local decision makers saw the need to have the people in the system better trained, and so be able to perform at higher levels.
People responded and soon became very qualified. In-service training was in vogue; people worked by day and pursued classes in the evening. It was a case of making sacrifices and many were not averse to making these sacrifices.
Soon the time came when there were those who were not prepared to make the sacrifice. They wanted time-off and were actually granted to the detriment of the very education system. There were no teachers to lead the classes made vacant by the absent teachers.
We are a people who do not recognise danger when it first appears as a minor incident. When teachers began to leave to pursue studies at the University of Guyana without the requisite permission, the heads turned a blind eye, and what started as a trickle soon became a flood. In many schools today there are no teachers.
By the time the Education Ministry intervened the situation had become chaotic; semi-literates were leaving the primary schools for the secondary schools; children entering schools were not taught, with the result that by the time they reached puberty, they were no better off than when they entered. This eventually caused the then Education Minister, Dr Dale Bisnauth, to remark that the University of Guyana was producing functional illiterates.
It is surprising that nothing has changed for more than a decade and that precious little has been done to pursue a reversal of the fortunes of the education system. Over the past two years we have begun to talk about remedial education, but we are hard-pressed to find teachers who would undertake this task. It is as if the teachers have sent a clear message that once schools are closed, then there is nothing to get them to work. This is a distinct change from the time when educationists insisted that the holidays were for the children, and for the teachers to improve themselves.
This past week, a number of Canadian teachers successfully completed what the authorities call professional enhancement. In one case, one of the successful teachers already knows that come the September term, she would be earning an additional C’dn $5,000 per annum.
There is nothing to stop the University of Guyana from conducting enhancement classes. Our teachers need drastic improvement if we are to reverse this trend that sees thousands leaving school each year unable to make a positive contribution to the society. There is nothing to stop the Education Ministry from making it compulsory for teachers to attend improvement classes during the holiday periods.

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Revamping the education system

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