Fixing a society laden with unacceptable peculiarities

Jan 24, 2016 News

By Sharmain Grainger
Being courteous, saying hello or simply paying attention seem to be rather difficult tasks for some young people, and even some older ones for that matter, in our society.

Dr. Kenneth Hunte

But this state of affairs is certainly not limited to our homeland. In fact it could be regarded as a global phenomenon.
While some may argue that these peculiarities have been around throughout the ages, the many that are evident today could easily be deemed downright unacceptable and will in no way help a developing nation like ours to grow.
Worrying is the fact that being polite, for some, is just not an option and, added to this, it would appear that people are increasingly committing despicable criminal acts against each other. As if this does not make the society disquieting enough, it seems that suicide has become the only answer to life’s troubles for many.
There are, however, some who have seen the desperate need for a change in our society – even at the level of Government measures are being put in place.
While the family has a crucial role in helping to set its young members on the right track, Dr. Kenneth Hunte believes that the school system must also have a hand in this.
In fact, he is convinced that from the point of the teacher training institutions, efforts must be made to educate teachers so that they in turn could help foster needed societal change.
It is for this reason that he is collaborating with the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) to ensure that the intended results of a pastoral care initiative, which was recently launched, is realised.
Dr. Hunte is the author of ‘Towards Education for the Common Good – Personal and Social Development’, a publication that focuses on pastoral care.
Pastoral care refers to a friendship that intentionally seeks to help a person along life’s path. Its focus is to offer emotional and spiritual support that leads to happiness.

Ms. Esther Utoh hands over a copy of Dr. Hunte’s book to Mr. Paul Cameron which is expected to aid CPCE’S pastoral care initiative.

But Dr. Hunte was unaware when he ventured to the Turkeyen campus recently, to garner support to promote his book, that Principal of CPCE, Ms. Viola Rowe was already fast forwarding the pastoral care initiative.
He was elated to learn that CPCE was already on course to setting in motion an idea that he had eloquently outlined in his publication. A partnership was immediately forged.
“I have written in the book that all of the teacher training institutions have a role to play,” said Dr. Hunte, if Guyana is returned to the place it was envisaged to be.
At the launch of the initiative, Dr. Hunte, in reflective mode, recalled that it was about 50 years ago that the national leaders had a vision for Guyana. And according to him, “it was a good vision…we developed the Coat of Arms which talks about One People; the National Pledge which talks about patriotism, love and happiness for all; the National Anthem…we must be free people, and of course the Golden Arrowhead, which highlights the contributions made by all our ethnic groups.”
But Dr. Hunte observed that during the last 30 years, or thereabouts, Guyana started to lose its way. Consequently, he added, the vision that was carefully thought through is no longer the focus for national development.
In his opinion, the current vision is all about greed; one’s personal self achievement, to get rich quick and by any means necessary, without giving any consideration of the impact of such behaviour on other persons. And he has concluded too, “this behaviour is a reflection of the way we are thinking; it doesn’t just drop out of the sky”.
“We have got a mechanical process in our brains with the help of our conscience and our will that helps us to decide what is the right thing to do,” he added.
But according to Dr. Hunte, because people have not been educated to ‘think right” the outcome is that Guyana has been reduced to perhaps “the most corrupt nation in the English-speaking Caribbean”. And such a situation, he observed, has morphed into very high levels of anti-social and violent behaviour exhibited by our youths.
And those within CPCE have not been exempted, Dr. Hunte noted.
Through the pastoral care initiate, staffers of CPCE have committed to offer their time, voluntarily, to help guide students and spearhead measures that can lend to a transformed society, free of ill-will and bad intentions. The initiative is being coordinated by Paul Cameron.
“We are really hoping and praying that you guys will take the message forward so that we change the next generation of young people,” said an optimistic Dr. Hunte, who asserted that the lack of equal opportunities has also been an underlying factor lending to a daunting state of the society.
“We say that education is free, but is it really? You can pay $10,000 on the East Coast or the West Coast where I come from and you’ll get your School Based Assessment done for you. And to cut a long story short, only half of the nation’s 16-plus year-old children get entered for CXC,” Dr. Hunte pointed out.
This situation, he observed, is a clear indication that enough is not being done to help the youths along, as he considered that only 16 per cent of students manage to get Grades One to Three passes in English Language.
“How did that all come about? It came about because we have chosen it; it didn’t happen by accident, we deliberately excluded half of the nation’s population from the educational services that is intended for all people,” Dr. Hunte theorised.
But he is convinced that, across the board, the common goal of people still remains happiness. As such he emphasized that the onus is on those who know better to do better.
Dr. Hunte related that while CPCE has commenced the process, moves should also be made towards including in the schools’ curriculum, a subject called Personal and Social Development. This subject area, Dr. Hunte noted, should be designed to focus on the intrinsic values or the affective domain of development for the nation’s children.
“We want to make sure that those concepts that deal with personal development are addressed and addressed thoroughly, we don’t want children growing up being abusive to adults, we don’t want our children growing up being rude to people – not even saying good morning,” Dr. Hunte emphasised.
He noted that “sometimes you open a door for a person and they just walk through without even saying thank you”.
“It is becoming too much. We have to stop it and the only people that will stop it is if we educate our young people to be cognizant of the values of humanity…our values are very, very simple – we want to be happy so that means we have to love each other. We want to develop this country so that means we have to work towards a common goal together.”