The Education System in British Guiana; pre-Independence in 1966

Oct 06, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor;
Hello, At last it has been said. “The Scottish system is the best in the world” – I could vouch for that – at least the primary system, of which I am a product, educated in a colony – British Guiana, now Guyana. In that system, we used books published by the MacMillan publishing house, and the Royal readers were the most informative class readers, their arithmetic books the most comprehensive.
In fact because of our basic (Scottish-type) education, we were able to build on that, and many of my classmates went on to become brilliant professionals, mostly British qualified barristers, one of them eventually becoming President of our country after Independence, marrying my best friend, now both deceased. I will always laud our primary education system plus the dedication of our teachers, whose training was based on their methods, although most of them were not traditionally trained, but did their job as a lifelong occupation.
At the time of Independence in 1966, one British newspaper reported that our country had the highest standard of education in the Caribbean and fourth in the world! Of course, now it is almost the reverse. But I am proud to be a product of our (Scottish type) primary education, which has enabled me to hold my own in London as a personal secretary, mainly in the civil and public services. Indeed, when I was “let go” from my last long-term public service job, when it was privatised, as a Superintendent of Typists, because presumably my “face no longer fitted”, no one was found to take on the duties I was happy to do!
Perhaps the shareholders were jubilant, the secretarial division was ‘erased’, bosses either brought their secretaries with them, or recruited through employment agencies. Quicker, less cumbersome, our superb office location and accommodation in a ‘tower’, serviced by several tube stations, grabbed by the bigwigs, some of them American!
I would always praise our primary education system, but we children of the 1930s-60s took pride in learning, teachers took pride in teaching, and we had annual exams to progress from class-to-class, culminating in the national Primary School Certificate at age 14, the possession of which saw us through life, literate and numerate! One of my joys was informing my Civil Service Scottish boss of the existence of the poem “Alexander Selkirk” and reciting the first line! Have a great day.
Geralda Dennison

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