Arguments for the employment of local skills

Aug 27, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

If you examine the 15-month record of the Granger/Nagamootoo administration you will see the profusion of skilled people from the diaspora that have been employed. The miraculous exception was Lennox Cornette at NCN. How he made that job will remain one of the mysteries of the Coalition Government. In most, if not all the cases, these diaspora people were well qualified. But herein lies the problem local residents have.
Once the Coalition Government is looking for qualifications, Guyanese living in Guyana will hardly likely make it. They simply cannot compete with diaspora Guyanese because the reality is against them.
Let’s examine this contention. We have one university in Guyana, only a washed-up fool with no consciousness of where he or she is, will accept that the University of Guyana is even a tenth rate institution. I taught there for 26 years. Give me some credit for knowing how and why it fell down. It has a new Vice-Chancellor who played no part in its decline. One has to wish him well.
UG has problems sustaining its degree programmes in disciplines like History, English etc. With that reality, where are the opportunities for doing a Masters in any programme at UG? The news was disgraceful when it hit the newspapers five years ago; the best graduating student couldn’t find employment. Well, nothing wrong with that. It happens in other countries. But in other countries, what she would have easily done was to walk into a university and do a Masters in her field. At UG she graduated in International Relations. There are no prospects even in the distant future of UG offering a Masters degree in International Relations.
Guyanese from low income backgrounds, who hold a first degree from UG, migrate to the US, find employment hard to get, and they pursue higher education. I know many Guyanese who are doing low level jobs and have Masters. It is easier to get a second degree in finance-related subjects in the US because the university curricula in the US favours business-related subjects. If the Government of Guyana is going to emphasize strict qualifications without contextualization, then I reject such a policy. It ignores the context of the Guyanese reality.
I know police officers who retired at age 55 in Guyana and within three years, secured a higher degree in the US. They are going to be more eligible for public sector jobs than their local counterparts who retired at the same age but opportunity for higher qualifications are simply not there. What the Government needs to do is to recognize the context in which our local talent has had to operate since 1980, and arrange scholarship programmes for them after they enter government service.
It is called visionary thinking. In my column tomorrow, I theorize on the question of transformative, visionary leadership and I conclude that maybe ( I emphasize, “maybe”) since Burnham, Guyana has been woefully lacking in such leadership and I will assert that it is absent in our present government from top to bottom. I see it every day. The manifestations are ubiquitous.
Government cannot retain the representative of the teachers’ union on the Commission of Inquiry into the educational system because money isn’t there to pay all the commissioners. Government cannot offer a 20 percent increase to low-earning public servants, because money isn’t there. Government cannot build a new prison because money isn’t there.
Who says money isn’t there? Money was found to celebrate the Golden Jubilee. Money was there in the hundreds of millions, almost touching a billion to build a thing that cynics who distrust politicians refer to as, “bread and circus.” Its official name is D’Urban Park. On Wednesday morning, I took my daughter on a tour to see the famous “D’Urban Park.” She did upbraid me when I said; “look at wood ants.” She rightfully said it was too early for wood ants’ infestations. But they are coming. Wood ants are mean-spirited little creatures. They attack and devour wood relentlessly. I mistook something for wood ants, but the wooden structure has conspicuous cracks in every stand.
I like Minister David Patterson’s explanation as to why they couldn’t use the National Park and the Providence Stadium to celebrate the Golden Jubilee. He said such places couldn’t hold the amount of people that would want to see the event. He was referring of course to the masses. I guess the masses include those thousands who cannot get a 20 percent increase, cannot get a lowering of VAT rates, and whose children will languish in jail for smoking a marijuana joint. Didn’t a Guyanese politician once exclaim; “the masses are asses?”

1 thoughts on “Arguments for the employment of local skills”

Prof. One Luv August 27, 2016 at 4:10 am

Freddie I liked the thought you expressed in this article. However, I wish to add that unless you have transformational leaders, then visionary thinking will not be present I strongly believe that both goes together hand in hand. It is very sad that the government cannot find money to address many of the ills in our education system (lack of administrative and pedagogical skills of classroom teachers).
May I point out that some professionals in these areas are willing to absorb the cost and working pro bono to assist in providing teachers and administrators with these skills. It is only for the government to willing accept the offer.

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