We have a long way to go

Jun 04, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

With the Covid-19 having the world in a somewhat lockdown, the education sector is being greatly affected. Even though many parents are not working full-time, and children are home most of the time, I expected great improvement. Incidentally, that is not the case, even though government is trying its best to ensure there isn’t a lapse. All efforts could be seen, and the government is ensuring that all methods are utilised and new methods are being explored.
Many parents and children could be seen traversing to schools in order to submit the works that children are doing at home which they received either by worksheets or via the internet. Data usage has increased immensely as most of the work and research are being done through the internet. Many parents and children could be seen daily moving around with cell phones and some attention are drawn to the phones as they shuffle around the place. Naturally, one would assume that they are well versed in using a cell phone and are quite comfortable surfing the internet after being online so much. To my dismay, that expectation was shattered recently based on my experience which I’ll outline below.
Due to the lockdown, many courses are being offered online either free or at a small fee. In some cases, scholarships are being offered by many universities and even the Government of Guyana, in collaboration with universities, is offering the GOAL scholarships. It should be noted that many courses being offered, do not require any qualifications or minimum. Knowing that this might be a rare opportunity, all the places I frequent, I’ve been informing young people of the opportunities that exist and educate them of the benefits. Many seem interested, and I even started to forward the links to them so that they could register or explore. To my amazement, upon following up to see if they are pursuing, everyone was having a problem and most cases, the same problems. Because everyone is in possession of a cell phone, I assumed that they would be able to go through the process easily. Instead, their complaints are that they cannot find the sites (even though I send them the links), they cannot navigate on the sites, or they find it hard to register. Many don’t even have an email address and don’t know how to sign up to get one! Nevertheless, I manage to help a lot and advise them to pursue.
Finally, repeatedly I’ve said that with the excitement behind the discovery of oil in Guyana, without a doubt, we will be attracting lots of skilled people in Guyana and if we are not prepared to compete with them for jobs, we will end up in a peculiar position. Presently, lots of opportunities exist and many more will be emerging for us to further our knowledge/skills. The way I am seeing it, the Government of Guyana is making every attempt to ensure that easy access and equal opportunity exist for everyone. As such, everyone should take the opportunities that are being presented to them. For me, it doesn’t make any sense someone walking with the most expensive phone and don’t know how to use it except for Facebook, WhatsApp or making Tik Tok videos, when that same cell phone could make them enhance their career! It tells me that we have a long way more to go.

Sahadeo Bates

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