OP:ED - Ministry of Education: A source of concern

OP:ED – Ministry of Education: A source of concern

Jan 20, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Education has some problems, could use some refurbishing, as it struggles to cope. Huge amounts of the national budget have been earmarked for different priorities, and there are these developments that alarm; they trickle from the heights. Things are not as they should be.

GHK Lall

The Ministry has been about a program of hostility and aggression at Teachers. Tone and postures have conveyed what should not be in a sector involving children. There is arrogance, acidity, abrasiveness, and aggression from the Ministry, which has set the stage, the culture, for resolving troublesome issues. When there is this degree of haughtiness and disdain in this field, then what follows follow. In compounds, in classroom, in conversation, and working relationships. The brawling culture saturates and takes hold, with some taking matters in their own hands in the worst way.

My position is unambiguous: no parent has any place in a classroom, especially self-control has fled, their intentions are pugnacious; ruinous to the ambience necessary for learning, grooming, preparing, imbuing, readying for future challenges. Any parent that steps away from the line of the headmaster’s or headteacher’s office has already progressed into no man’s land. Penalties must be swift and severe: charges, fines, possibly suspended jail time, or community service time. There must be willingness, and steeliness, at the Ministry of Education to make examples of those exhibiting indiscipline, rowdiness, and the searing lawlessness now the norm throughout Guyana, from the most prestigious places o the lowest. We must deploy what will serve as effective deterrents to invasions by enraged parents, who trample upon custom, tradition, and what no thoughtful, temperate citizen should ever accept.

Now, I understand that parents who barge into schools might have underlying infuriating circumstances prompting. Still, descent into the appalling and vulgar can never be understood, ever condoned; not when the guardians of classroom and young are attacked, brutalised. We are either an orderly and respectful society, or we are not. Now, I read that violent parents risk their children being expelled. Exaggeration, perhaps, since the new Chief Education Officer’s release on January 11^thspoke of “transfer”. Maybe, expulsion by another name. We don’t punish juveniles as adults, even when they maim and kill in heinous fashion. Identities are protected, the State and the law make provisions for the young, even in highly unpardonable situations. Still, I can live with “transfer any learner out of a school” if protocols are violated, parental mayhem ensues. Nevertheless, I caution that in civilized societies, children are exempt from the vicissitudes of political and governmental overreach.

Separately, I hear that education is the key to our destiny, the proof of our maturity, sagacity, and commitment to disciplined duty. I agree. It must start from the pinnacle of the Ministry of Education. This is what becomes culture, practice, the norm, with the top leading the way by example. Some sincerity, a little humility would help, catch on, even be applauded. Not everything has to be politicized, through attitude, body language, comportment. When the Ministry of Education so operates, then disrespect and disregard travel in both directions. People (parents, children, officials, even teachers) believe that anything goes.

On another note, four fires involving schools would have been the kiss of death, the death march out the door. Three structures completely destroyed by fire, and the wing of another one vanquished. Somebody has to be responsible, notwithstanding agreement about accidents, or negligence, or faulty wiring, or surges, or possible accelerants. The only mitigating condition would be that of deliberate human intervention, with the worst of objectives. When issues like these keep rearing up their ugly heads, then heads must roll, with no head exempt. Separately, I was at a loss regarding how a small fire in a science laboratory can repeat itself into a full-blown catastrophe days later at the same facility. Now, I read of this sinister development about arson. Who, why, by what instrumentality, to what objectives? Tough justice must prevail.

Last, I passed by the old Central High School on Smyth Street, and was taken aback to notice an impressive looking building complete with a proud signboard announcing an office of the Ministry of Education. The ministry’s premises may be congested, but to dislocate hundreds of children from any institution of learning, (and a Grade A one to boot) under the pretense of no space, to make way for the bureaucracy earns the categorization of not mismanagement at its worst, but calculated callousness. With $94.4 billion allocated to the education sector it is party time. That is, the vulgar contractual corruptions, and the political ones. Considering all this, it is time for some changes at the Ministry of Education. Start high, start sooner than later.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)