We are mere users of technology

Nov 12, 2011 Editorial

Technology has definitely made life simpler but for all that in this country there seems to be an increasing number of people who are incapable of making the best of the growing technology. Indeed, one cannot imagine life without some of the things that people now take for granted.
For example, research is at one’s fingertips, a far cry from the days when people wither had to buy a compilation of the Encyclopedia or trek to the library to browse through tomes of reading material. Time had to be wasted while people set out to access the reference sources. For those who lived great distances from the various libraries, research was tedious; it meant hours of delay.
People in the rural communities were at the greatest disadvantage. Today, with the advent of the computer and the smart phones, research is a fingertip away. People cannot understand what went on before.
It is the same with communication by post. People transmitted messages by Morse then had someone deliver it either on foot or by cycle. Mail was equally tedious sometimes becoming lost in delivery. It is not unusual to hear of letters finding their way to the recipient more than fifty years after they were intended.
Normal correspondence between people a few miles apart was three days. If the person lived overseas then the response time was somewhere between six weeks and two months.
Today mail by post is obsolete. Indeed there are the bills and the legal notices that still come through the post because there is often need to prevent the receiver from contending that he or she was never in receipt of the missive.
In Guyana the post office is crying out because it is aware that the technology advances have made it all but redundant. People no longer write letters that they place in envelopes and ship to people in far countries.
Technology has really gone places. Education is being dispensed through electronic means. When one teacher was recommended to teach no more than thirty children in a class through technological advances this very teacher can teach much more. And there is a facility for feedback. No longer is remote learning a faceless activity. People can actually see the other person although many miles may separate them.
That is why one must now ask whether there is a limit to developments in technology. We in Guyana must worry at the decline in passes at the sciences. For starters, Mathematics seems to be the subject that induces the most fear in teachers and students alike. It is the subject that attracts the worst pass rate at the external examinations. This is the base subject for any foray into the sciences and technology is rooted in the Mathematics-based sciences.
We would expect that for all the talk about taking Guyana into the 21st Century we would have been fashioning resources to make this a reality. Every country that does have a strong science base makes for a good technology programme. So far we have not even made a bicycle.
We were heading in that direction when we started assembling radios and other bits of electronics. We started to assemble refrigerators and at one stage we actually assembled cars. That was some four decades ago.
We have lost all of that and it with it, no incentive for our youngsters to work to attain the heights.
The Education Ministry is talking about improving the ability of students to perform at Mathematics and Science. The government is mulling importing teachers. We say that anything to make us really a part of the 21st century is good.
Canada made no bones of recruiting the best brains from overseas. They offered them residency status. The result was that the brains of India, China and even some African countries. The rest of the country would feed from this.
The United States is no different. It too opened its borders to foreign brains. The result is that those countries are experiencing unprecedented technological advances.
Somehow, we have people who can fix anything that the major powers produce. It is a pity that they can go no further.
Perhaps we should offer incentives to those who pursue the sciences. We make no suggestions but if we are truly to make use of the advances now coming something drastic must happen.

Latest News

We are mere users of technology

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 7th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Allicock, Amsterdam named in GBA training squad 2025 Caribbean Boxing...

Interesting transfers, Clubs secure firepower...

North East beat Back Circle B; set up semi...

DCC executive laud Savory, Imlach for champion...

Dozens of young chess players participate in...

Shai Hope claims Green Belt and Dispatch of the...

Features/Columnists

Forward to the past

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Process, procedure, political people and public servants

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

We are mere users of technology

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 7th, 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 […]