The education system must embrace change if Guyana is to progress

Oct 23, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
One would have expected that the Minister of Education, who was present at the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of UG, to have apprehended the implications of the President’s remarks on embracing change for the practice of education in Guyana.
But, after reading two recent articles: KN 13/10/13: “Resolute to perfect the education sphere…Priya Manickchand is a ‘Special Person’; and, KN 19/10/13, “Education sector defies criticism in quest to improve”, it would appear that the implications have escaped her.
It is evident from the content of the reports that she is still unaware of the crucial change needed for the delivery of quality education.   Given the context of Guyana’s social and economic realities/dilemmas, a shift in emphasis from the narrow academic outcome of “the best exam results”, to the more encompassing and enduring educational outcome – human/character development, has been an imperative for quite some time.
The Minister must understand that the issue of quality education is not simply a question of efficiency, but more importantly, an issue of effectiveness: “How can the education system be made more effective in meeting various needs that exist within the Guyanese environment?
This involves numerous questions about purposes/goals, structure/restructuring, organization/reorganization, management/leadership, and capacity/capacity enhancement.    Answers to these questions can be provided only by serious study, not by rhetoric or exhortation, and not by backslapping or photo-ops.
The Minister needs to realize that in addition to meeting the needs of some individuals, education policies need to be informed by prominent social and economic phenomena that are occurring within the wider environment, especially those that pose serious threats to our economic and social health.
It saddens me to say, but some of the social and economic phenomena that are gaining increasing prominence in the wider Guyanese environment and that require our urgent attention are: 1) degradation of the environments – urban, rural, hinterland; 2) general erosion of respect for law and order; 3) corruption; 4) poverty; 5) criminal activity by youth – male and female; 6) loss of respect for life and limb; 7) alcohol and drug abuse by youth; 8) abuse of females of all ages by males of all ages; 9) youth unemployment; 10) rising inequalities; 11) shortage of higher level technical skills in the workforce; 12) decrease in local manufacture.
These phenomena are all aspects of behaviour by the graduates of our education system that diminish the nation’s patrimony, drain the public purse, but contribute nothing to the nation’s wealth.
Earlier this year a former Minister of Education revealed that half of the 18,000 who leave school annually are functionally illiterate?   Has this phenomenon been researched?
Will we continue to blame (and criminalize, and eventually execute?) the victims because they happened to have been born to the wrong parents?   Or blame parents who themselves were failed by the same education system some generations before?    Or, blame the teachers who have not been adequately prepared for today’s classrooms?
“What are the needed educational outcomes that are not being generated by the system?    “What structural, organizational, and managerial/leadership changes are needed in order to achieve greater congruence between educational outcomes and environmental needs?
Actually, it is an act of extreme courtesy to describe whatever took place between the Minister and KN as an interview.
The Minister was allowed to “strut her stuff” as if she were a major KN shareholder   She was not challenged to provide any explanations, or details.   For example: what does the Minister mean by “always looking for results”?   Why limit success to “academic success”?
Please tell us about the research unit at MOE, and the research that has been done, and is currently being done?    Are research reports published on MOE’s website?
Do students in underserved, and underprivileged areas benefit from dental and medical check-ups?   What is being done to recruit and retain higher qualified and competent professionals for our classrooms?
Why do you feel you must have a hands-on approach to see that education policy is being carried out in schools? Isn’t that the function of the “good team” of professionals within the ministry?    Could not your time be more profitably spent developing needed policies and strategies?
Clarence O. Perry

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