It is hilarious that the Education Ministry has adopted a pseudonym to put forward its rebuttal

Mar 16, 2012 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
I am very surprised that the Ministry of Education (MOE) took more than a week to respond to my letter which was captioned “The Ministry of Education seems to have the most unrealistic people on this planet” and published on the 7th March, 2012 in the Kaieteur News. It is hilarious that the MOE has adopted the pseudonym Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator, to put forward its rebuttal.
Here is a note on the use of pseudonyms: “Be as creative as possible”.
The great 19th century writer Mary Anne Evans used the pseudonym George Elliot so that her novels would be taken seriously in her society where all the great luminaries were men. Hence, the MOE needs to use examples like these when they are going to use a pseudonym. However, the pseudonym ‘Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator’ has Freudian implications which I will examine in another article. Ministry of Education or Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator, does not really matter to me!
This veteran educator is defending something which cannot be defended. Here is the Ministry’s modus operandi for the so-called intervention. Extra classes were held in December 2011; a pre-test was conducted in January 2012; materials were distributed in January and February; training sessions were held in January and February and finally a post-test will be held in March.
Any trainee-teacher will tell you that the order is incorrect. The pre-test needed to be the first thing done before any teaching so that the school or MOE gets a true picture of what the students know.
The Ministry of Education had the students taught in December and then tested them in January. What geniuses! Having been taught in December, the pre-test results are flawed. The Ministry used past CSEC papers to get the questions for the pre-test.
Firstly, some of the questions were ambiguous, poorly worded and just plain wrong. In fact, Paper 1 and 2 of the pre-test did not meet the CSEC requirements as specified in the current Math syllabus. It should meet the CSEC requirements since the Ministry called it a ‘Mock CXC Examination’ as was printed on the test papers. In fact, it was downright madness.
Imagine in the mark scheme to the math test set by the MOE, questions were worked incorrectly. Could you imagine that the Ministry of Education set a test, worked the questions for the test and worked them incorrectly? Imagine more, the Ministry sent a second mark scheme for this same pre-test and on this one there were errors too. They seem to be the ones needing intervention.
All of this indicates that there is no plan in place. What the Ministry of Education has done is to adopt a carpe diem motif in the management of education in Guyana.
Here is the biggest issue with the pre-test. No two secondary schools in this country do the same topics for a subject at the same time. As such, it is impossible to use a standardized test. Could you imagine how dejected some students would feel having failed the pre-test simply because the topic was not taught as yet? This pre-test demotivated the students. It may have conditioned some of them to failure.
Let’s talk about the training that Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator talks about. It would be nice if the MOE can release some details about these. I would like to see a plan of what was taught (something like a scheme of work), a list of people who attended (something like a register), the facilitators including qualifications (something like a personnel sheet) and the evaluation of the training session in measurable terminology. This is what the Ministry of Education demands of its teachers. As such, it must set the example by producing the same. If these cannot be presented then we can conclude that this training exercise has not been planned.
When an examination of the training is done one will realize that it is the same thing which the Ministry has been doing all the time with the same futile results: you get a couple of very old people, who are past retirement, and you allow them to tell the attendees how great they were when they were young until it is lunch time. Here is the big question about the training: HOW DID THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION KNOW WHAT HAD TO BE TAUGHT DURING THESE TRAINING SESSIONS?
Dolly, here is what the MOE did. It demanded that teachers teach extra classes outside of school hours as part of the intervention, but teachers were taken out of normal teaching time to attend training. This is so sensible!
Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator makes a fool of the Ministry of Education by citing the quantity of time that 2011 students have spent in school. She says “The present batch of Grade 11 learners had two years at the Nursery level, six years at the Primary level and five years at the secondary level to cultivate the skills alluded to.” How could the Ministry of Education allow students to spend 13 years in the education system and not know that they were weak in math? I wonder how former Minister Shaik Baksh feels about this!
The madness in this is that you have not been able to help them for 13 years to pass, but you are going to make them pass in six months. Not only pass but that “there will be a 20% improvement” were Minister Manickchand’s words when she visited the schools. These students would have written 4 standardized examinations and at least 2 regional examinations. How is it that only now we are finding out these students are weak?
Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator says “Smart objectives have been set based on each school’s peculiar areas of strengths and weaknesses.” This is a lie. The Ministry Of Education does not have any information on any school’s strengths and weaknesses. If it is not a lie then show us objectives for each of the 32 schools on the programme.
In fact, in most of paragraph 4, Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator lies. Regional Officials do not visit on a weekly basis and will never visit on a weekly basis. The external observers, who the MOE identified as ‘Resource Personnel’ will not visit weekly. Prove me wrong. Release the reports that they have submitted to the MOE to the press.
Imagine Nazim Hussain, who is an excellent TV personnel, is a ‘Resource Personnel’ for a school in Georgetown, according to the Ministry of Education. He goes into the school and ‘externally observes’ graduate teachers teaching, their records and anything else he deems fit. The GTU needs to look into this. Does Chapter 39:01 allow this form of supervision?
While Nazim was nice enough to volunteer some of his time, he has no right being there. He is no ‘Resource Personnel’ for English and Math. I suspect that these ‘Resource Personnel’ were brought in because the Minister of Education does not trust the information being supplied by the Regional Officials. Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator says that ‘Performance indicators have recently been obtained via data collection to track whether the intervention is making progress.’ What are the performance indicators? I can provide 86.7 million reasons why we need to know!
Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator blames my non-attendance at a particular meeting for my misinformed judgement. Firstly, I wonder who in the Ministry of Education told her that I did not attend this meeting. I mean the only person I told that I did not go to this meeting was the Minister of Education.
Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator asserts that my questions about text books have been answered. Please answer the following: Did the Ministry of Education secure copyright permission to photocopy CSEC papers from 2008 to 2011? Did the Ministry of Education secure copyright permission to photocopy CSEC study guides for English and Math? I am now glad that a lawyer is heading the Ministry of Education in the event that CXC takes Guyana to court.
“On a serious note, with the prevailing negative social forces invading the school system, Guyana is indeed fortunate to have a luminary of the legal profession at its helm”, says Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator.
I am happy to hear that violence is “invading the school system”. Not long ago, former CEO Roopnarain Tiwari said that he does not know that there is a problem of violence in the school system in Guyana when responding to a question in Parliament. Was he lying then? Additionally, I would be happy if Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator can explain how a lawyer can stop the negative social forces invading the school system. Does Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator mean that there will be reduced cost of legal consultation required for individuals affected as a result of the ‘negative social forces invading the school system’?
Dolly S. Hussain – Veteran Educator, grow up! This programme is nothing more than the giving of gifts to this nation’s youth in the hope that if there are snap elections the batch of 2011 CSEC students will vote for the minority government.
Mohammed S. Hussain

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