Is there a textbook policy?

Oct 07, 2012 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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When the PPP/C came to power twenty years ago in 1992, the then President promised a ‘lean and clean’ government and the populace added in ‘mean’. Five years later, that President was dead, and with his death the leanness and the cleanness passed away.  Thirteen Ministries in 1992 and 20 Ministries in 2012.
Everybody in the society (from senior official to the man-in-the-street) knows of the corruption in the land.  Some cases of corruption are disguised or subtle and some are not so disguised or subtle. And the man-in-the-street, who must not be taken for granted, can often smell a rat.  He sees and knows of the millions of dollars passing hands and how that money is being spent. There is more money nowadays in the National Budget, yet his children cannot get textbooks in school and at times he has to resort to ‘pirated’ texts.
Even from 1992 the PPP/C Administration began to reap the benefits of the ERP (Economic Recovery Programme), when the Central Bank was accumulating increasing amounts of foreign reserves. Thereby more money became available for education resources. Early in 1990s locally written textbooks were printed for the Ministry of Education and distributed to secondary schools.  But today there is a shortage of textbooks in our schools.
We hear from all over the world that education is important for the development of a country.  We know that a sure way for a low-income family to pull up itself out of poverty is for the children to be successful at school, primary and more so secondary. But in many of our secondary schools students do not have the necessary textbooks to carry home in order to do homework.  In the case of Mathematics a student needs a textbook to do extra practice at home. Maths is not learnt like History or Literature or Social Studies.  When certain Maths skills are not learnt at the Primary level or at early Secondary level, it is late and sometimes too late to spend millions of dollars in remedial Maths classes at Forms Four and Five in preparation for CSEC examinations. Very often the students (and teachers too) have developed a dislike for the subject.  Therefore, it must not be a policy of better late than never!
Now, there is no doubt that a shortage of textbooks exists in our public schools. Since March 2012, Ms Cathy Hughes, M.P. asked the Minister of Education in Parliament for the number of Level Seven students provided with individual textbooks in the four core subjects. Seven months later or after more than 200 days the Minister of Education cannot tell Parliament what the number is. It means that EITHER the Minister and her officers do not know what is the state of play with regards the supply of Level Seven textbooks OR she knows the answer and is too embarrassed to tell Parliament. One must now ask whether the Ministry has a policy of acquiring textbooks on a regular basis to ensure adequate supplies to schools AND what this policy states about distribution of textbooks to individual students in the core subjects.
When the Government of Guyana and the World Bank agreed in 1990s to the SSRP (Secondary Schools Reform Project), textbooks were purchased so that each student in Levels 7, 8 and 9 of the twelve Pilot Schools would get individual textbooks in the four core subjects to have and to hold and to use in school and at home. It was also expected that Government would replicate this policy for all schools. Obviously, for reasons not made public, this has not been done, and now many students in school today are at a disadvantage, not to mention those who fell through the cracks and have gone their way.
Today, it is Government’s declared policy to acquire ‘pirated’ textbooks.  This is not the solution to the problem.  This manner of procurement has serious implications, and grave repercussions for the near-sighted. In the first place, Government is condoning and encouraging wholesale illegal activities of openly violating copyright laws.
The culprits in the past and present of this illegality and future violators of similar or other laws would expect coverage from Government. In the second place, writers would see it as a disincentive to write textbooks for fear of being robbed of their just rewards after years of sacrifice, toil and investment. The publishing of textbooks by our local writers would further dry up, unlike the scenario in other Caribbean countries. Government should acquire textbooks by the proper means and put the books in the bookstores at subsidized prices for the same parents to buy who were willing to buy the ‘pirated’ books.
With more lean and clean government, the money could be found.  One ready source is the proposed investment in the Marriot Hotel venture. This is not a priority, unless the real objective is to spite the owner(s) of the nearby Pegasus Hotel by giving them unnecessary competition.  But that is never the role of any proper government. Adequate books are more important!

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