We need to look at those school leavers

Jun 28, 2012 Editorial

Another school year is coming to an end, and we are fast approaching the time when there would be those who would be leaving school hoping to enter the world of work. These are the people who are going to be pounding the streets and knocking on the doors of the various offices with the hope of gaining employment. Many would have the basic qualifications to work, but because of the nature of many places of employ, there would simply be no vacancies.
Many of the places of employment simply cannot offer employment to the job seekers.
In government entities many positions have been made redundant. At the same time, the older staff are nowhere near the age of retirement, so even those positions that could be considered critical, simply are not open.
In the case of the private sector there is the conscious decision to cut back on employment because the economic turnover is simply not adequate enough for these companies to keep hiring people. And as a few executives have remarked over the years, some of the people seeking employment are simply not qualified to hold down certain positions.
Of course, there are the teaching and nursing positions. Many of these job seekers may gravitate to the Education Ministry, but few would consider nursing for one reason or other. One place that would readily accept some of them is the Guyana Police Force, but parents are somewhat reluctant to have their children become professional law enforcers. They cite the threat of violence and the low pay which has been described as a disincentive.
Something needs to be done for the school leavers. If they fail to gain employment, many could easily become ready recruits for the drug dealers. The drug dealers can easily offer the kind of money that would attract any unemployed youth. And these young people would not even consider the risk as we are so often seeing in our midst.
Those who leave school with the barest minimum of academic qualification would not think of learning a trade by going to one of the trade schools we have in Guyana. They would prefer to loiter on the streets and probably gravitate to the crime situation that is now gripping the country.
As far as they are concerned, other people’s property is theirs for the taking, once they have a gun, and there are just too many guns in the society.
In days gone by, one saving grace was the Guyana National Service, to which many gravitated. This institution not only offered some measure of employment, it also offered food, shelter and a chance for the pioneer to learn a skill.
Many of those who are artisans boast that they got their breakthrough in the national service.
It is time the administration takes a serious look at the situation with the school leavers. Of course, no government could provide for all the people in any country.
However, in cases where there is a depressed economy, one must take a serious look at the options. There may not be many options at this time, but surely we may wish to expand the image of the trade schools such as the Government Technical Institute and the Guyana Industrial Training Centre. These are institutions that have the potential to offer school leavers a new lease on life.
The administration should consider pumping money into these institutions, because failing to do this could see the government pumping even more money in the Guyana Police Force to correct a situation that should never have arisen.
Some of the school leavers have been gravitating to the fast money. More than seventy per cent of them are academically deficient so they become minibus operators, itinerant vendors and even miners and tributors. The latter are the people who now chase the gold and diamond.

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We need to look at those school leavers

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