The decline of education in Guyana has been a decades-old concern

Nov 29, 2014 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
The decline of education in Guyana since the 1980s until today has been a major concern for every educated Guyanese citizen living and working here. As our political and economic conditions deteriorated, many of our qualified teachers left the country seeking better jobs with better pay and better job incentives. When teachers are poorly paid, the education system cannot attract and keep qualified teachers. The effect of these conditions on student performance is reflected in failures at the primary, secondary and university level.
Education is the eternal foundation of a nation’s development, but there has been a greater decline of education in Guyana as we have entered into this modern era of technology. The absence of trained, qualified teachers created more under-qualified teachers teaching in our schools today as a result of ‘children teaching children’.
Performances at the common entrance exams (National Grade Six Assessment) as well as CXC and GCE are very disappointing. Failures at the University of Guyana have now become a major concern for the business sector as well as the Government institutions. Graduating dysfunctional illiterates – some with GPAs as low as 1.6 – has created a monster in this nation.
Students who are qualified with 6-8 subjects and even university graduates cannot function properly on a job. Many of them cannot write a report, a proper job application letter, they cannot do basic arithmetic, yet they are given a certificate as a very qualified academic. I know of a student who passed eight subjects including Maths, but cannot recite his seven times tables and do simple multiplication and fractions.
The true foundation of education is reading. Today students are seen with iPods, BlackBerry phones, and all sorts of technical equipment attached to their ear, but a good book for them is something obsolete. My visit to several libraries has proven this fact, because I haven’t seen a great number of students reading and doing research. Television and DVD, also vulgar music, have taken a toll on our young generation, creating more and more dunces, school dropouts, drug addicts, prostitutes, street vendors etc. We are just one generation away from complete illiteracy.
Just recently I performed a marriage for some very rich people; to my amazement the bride who was just nineteen cannot sign her name properly or read, even those signing as witnesses couldn’t spell their names without looking on their ID cards. A lot of our Guyanese folks go after businesses and getting money but fail to realize that a good education is needed for their children’s future. I discovered even within churches a great amount of illiterates and functional illiterates.
The school discipline that was in the Ministry of Education 30 years ago is now thrown out the window. The removal of corporal punishment from our schools created more disobedient pupils and students. Teachers are unable to deal with indisciplined students, thus the teachers are now afraid of some students and their parents. A child without a proper education and great moral upbringing will be another nuisance in society. Most of the problems we have seen such as domestic violence, drug addiction, prostitution, stealing etc. is the direct result of illiteracy and poor parental guidance.
In over 50% of our homes in Guyana, reading and writing have been problems. A survey among the religious community also depicted that over 60% of families attending churches cannot read or write at a very competent level.
As a legal marriage officer I discovered that a great many of our young Guyanese citizens will spell their own names wrong when they write it,  while some will write a ‘call name’ but cannot spell out their real names on their birth certificates. While I am not against it, I believe this age of technology has helped to create more illiterates.
Our education system has failed since the late L.F.S Burnham introduced free education from nursery to secondary schools. This free system of education failed, because our schools cannot produce text books for students writing CXC, thus their parents are pushed to buy thousands of dollars worth of photocopied books from corrupt store owners.
Where have we failed in our education system?
First the free education that was advocated by Burnham since the 1970s did not push our system of education to be competitive with our Caribbean neighbours. Our country failed to produce better graduates than Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica etc. and the wider Caribbean.
The Caribbean is a very small space of about 6.5 million people; our people are very far behind that small space. In many of our institutions, lots of non-Guyanese are working for higher salaries because our people are under-qualified to do the job; and those who are qualified have to pay bribes and have ‘lines’ to acquire a good job. For us to better equip our people academically we will have to return to the old colonial system of education – back to basics such as Grammar, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Spelling, English, Reading, Dictation, Geography, History etc.
Today even some well-qualified teachers cannot teach proper grammar to a child. Many students  have told me that teachers are not taking time off to correct their assignments. So how will that child recognise his/her mistakes?
Many of the subjects that are offered at High School level are mostly business subjects and not some real tough subjects to improve the students’ intellect and thinking power. The teaching of classical literature from Shakespeare to Homer should be re-introduced. The study of Latin, Ethics, Logics, Poetics, Literature & Criticism, Astronomy, Political Science, Jurisprudence and Religion should be in our academic curriculum. All of these subjects will give our students a very lucid and comprehensive understanding about education.
The value of a nation’s wealth and prosperity comes from the value of her educated citizens. Rome ruled and governed the world once because of her supreme intellectual aptitude and power. We cannot compete with a modern civilized world without a classical education. What the University of Guyana as well as the Ministry of Education need is a new constitution of our academic progress in the twenty-first century. What we need are dedicated teachers who will work for their salaries and not collect the Government’s money by false pretence. The economic progress of this nation comes from education – that is the key to our GDP and prosperity.
We also need moral education (including religious education) in our schools and universities to build and improve the character of students. The value of our nation will be the value of her people with good character that will involve honesty, integrity, and a belief in God. Ultimately, we must not forget our Creator who gives us wealth, knowledge, and wisdom, and who is the source of our existence.
Rev. Gideon Cecil

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