We seem to be losing a vital method of communicating

Mar 21, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,

It is public knowledge that our education system has not been producing the desired results for over a very long period. About five percent continues to do exceedingly well, and an estimated fifteen percent reasonably well. Maths and English continue to be the Achilles heel of eighty percent of students who write the CXC Exams.
The telltale of these failures is reflective in our everyday lives. I have seen people with university degrees struggle to fill out forms at Government offices, not that these graduates are incompetent—the instructions on these forms are totally out of context.
I saw one for mortgage release from GRA the other day. The instructions at the top states, ”All sections must be completed”. As you scroll down there are some areas totally unrelated—it’s confusing. It is a reflection of how years of consistent failure by students in English Language has saliently soaked into the fabric of our daily lives.
Journalism has not been spared of this tragedy. A few days ago an article appeared in the Kaieteur News about a Hotel owner who imported a wind turbine for the generation of electricity for his Hotel in Berbice. The article states that the owner is thinking about dismantling the wind turbine which is already operational and shipping it back to India. The Journalist asserted, ”It was made clear that the turbine has become a “white elephant” since its primary purpose of supplying the new multi-million-dollar hotel with electricity has not been allowed.”
The owner or someone representing is quoted as saying, ““So we are still part of the national grid, but would also like to supply the grid with affordable surplus energy from our wind turbine operation.” I assume that the Hotel is powered by the national grid. The Journalist later added.” The turbine is located miles away from the hotel.
“It is the intention to have the wind turbine hooked up to the electricity grid with a system in place to measure how much energy is being generated and shared.” This is clear, the owner wants to supply his Hotel through the national grid and sell the excess power to GPL.
The story delved into the surreal when the Journalist said,” The four-storey hotel is being powered by a wind turbine, one of the first fully ‘green’ businesses in Berbice.” Now the reader is trapped in a Maze. Did the Owner import two wind turbine-one for supplying the energy needs of his Hotel and one which he placed “miles away from the Hotel”, with the intention of selling power to GPL?
The Hotel is “still part of the national grid”-from the owner. “The four-storey hotel is being powered by a wind turbine” -from the Journalist. It is possible! Buildings do have dual power supply as an emergency system but the building cannot be considered fully green since the national grid uses fossil fuel.
I have heard people giving completely different versions of what is written in the paper after reading a crystal clear article. This is testimony that the comprehension skills of the reading public-which is diminishing, has been compromised over the years too.
Thankfully! The writer’s name was not mentioned beside the Caption. The Editor missed the anomaly and probably very few people read it. It seems we are losing a vital method of communicating- the art of reading and writing.
Rudolph Singh

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