Latest update September 18th, 2026 10:25 AM
President Ramotar as Commander-in-Chief must address Mr. Ganesh’s matter
Dear Editor,
I read the letter that one Kishan Ganesh wrote titled “The Commodore’s mockery of Jagan’s education ideals” (KN, Feb 22, 2013) and I was immensely displeased with what I suspect to be a blatant sticking for the rules while failing to see the forest for the trees.
President Ramotar should intervene in this matter. Regardless of what the admission standards for the Standard Officers Course are, I find it reprehensible that an institution like the Guyana Defence Force, which bears a tarnished image among most of the public and which is in desperate need of not only ethnic balance reflective of the ethnic flora of the nation but of bright young minds to uplift its image would deny a young man who achieved 11 CSEC subjects at Grades 1 and 2 a place in this course on what seems to be a hollow technicality.
The GDF is never viewed as an attractant for the best and brightest in Guyana. Surely, there is discretion within the office of those making admissions and selections.
It is shoddy and shameful that a young man who achieved 11 subjects at a regional exam is denied because he gained a Grade 3 in Mathematics.
Couldn’t the GDF have provisionally admitted Mr. Ganesh and ask him to do a challenge exam or a remedial course in Mathematics? Only a crassly arrogant organization dismissive of talent and potential would throw out the baby with the bathwater. To repudiate applicants who may have fallen just short on one prerequisite while they outshine the accepted on every other front is idiocy.
While I am not enamoured with Mr. Ganesh’s attempt to place this debacle solely as an affront to Jagan’s education ideals as every single Guyanese leader up to Janet Jagan was rabidly pro-education and yes, that includes Burnham and Hoyte, Kishan Ganesh is absolutely right that the GDF’s rejection of him is a slap in the face of perseverance, ambition and sacrifice.
Even more, it is a slap in the face of the dwindling complement of young people of this country who are willing to serve country and advance nation. I openly call on President Ramotar to launch an investigation of this matter and the entire admission standard of the GDF for all its programs.
The people need to know who got admitted to this Standard Officers Course over the past five years and what were their qualifications compared to Mr. Ganesh and how many did not pass Mathematics at Grades 1 or 2.
The people would like to know how many of those applicants had 11 Grades 1s and 2s. Launch an investigation into this matter and let the people know what happened here and whether it is reflective of a consistent standard or a selective mishmash of decision-making.For heaven’s sake, give the young man a shot.
M. Maxwell
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