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WHAT SKILLS DO WE NEED AS A NATION?

Apr 10, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

What skill set should a government promote through the offering of scholarships? This was one of the incidental issues arising out of the discourse so far on the handling of the scholarship issue for Guyana’s top CSEC student for 2014.
One comment contended that a country should issue scholarships to deserving students, but in fields that Guyana’s development demands. But just what are those fields that Guyana’s development demands?
The letter sent by the Public Service Ministry to Guyana’s top CESC student indicated that the scholarship offer was not just limited to Guyana, China and Cuba, but also to the fields of Engineering, Dentistry and Human Medicine, all of which are science fields.
So what would have been the outcome if that young child had wanted to pursue law like the former President of Guyana Forbes Burnham? What if she had wanted to become an economist like former President Bharrat Jagdeo and the incumbent President Donald Ramotar? What if she had wanted to do History like David Granger or Manpower Development like one government Minister? Would she be disqualified from the scholarship that she toiled so hard to achieve simply because her field of study was not in the STEM discipline?
What are the skills that the country needs? Does a country have no need for those who study philosophy, business sciences, history, literature or even art and music? What if someone won the top scholarship in the country but wanted to study liberal arts? Would that person be denied their entitlement on the grounds that the field of study they are pursuing is not one demanded by the country’s development?
I believe that a country needs its historians, its philosophers, its economists and the arts just as much as it needs those who specialize in the so-called ‘technical” disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
And in this regard, I have a heavyweight in my corner. Fareed Zakaria, one of the best known commentators in the West has written a book on the importance of a liberal arts education. He has also scripted a number of articles in which he has emphasized the value of a liberal arts education towards economic development.
I want to recap some of the things Zakaria has said to reinforce my view, that a country should try to promote a broad range of skill sets and thus by implication should not restrict scholarships to deserving students, only to the STEM disciplines.
In a column entitled, “Why America’s Obsession with STEM Education is Dangerous”, published in the Washington Post, Zakaria, using historical data, makes a strong and compelling case that one of the reasons why the United States has led the world in economic dynamism, innovation and entrepreneurship, is because of the broad-based education that it offers.
He asserts that this broad-based education, which includes liberal arts, helps to foster critical thinking and creativity. It also exposes its subjects to a variety of fields and produces synergy and cross-fertilization. According to Zakaria, “No matter how strong your math and science skills are, you still need to learn, think and even write.
I have seen many a brilliant person, many an experienced hand unable to achieve their full potential, simply because they lacked problem-solving skills and even more so when they lacked the ability to write and write well. This is one of the reasons why I believe that all university students should be required to do courses in English, and in creative and academic writing, as part of their tertiary education.
And just to illustrate his point about the value of a broad-based education Zakaria gave the example of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. Zuckerberg studied ancient Greek in primary school and majored in philosophy at university.
His development of Facebook brought together his love of computers and his understanding of the human person based on his training in psychology. He synergized those skills and produced a billion-dollar global empire. That is the value of broad-based education and that is the value of an education in the liberal arts.
If we in Guyana still do not appreciate that at this stage of our development, it is no wonder that we are telling the brightest and best amongst us that they should set their sights on technical training in China, Cuba and at the University of Guyana.
One thing though, if they opt for the former two, China and Cuba, they need to study languages, which are part of the liberal arts. Point made!

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