Dear Editor,
The education that we are acquiring in schools today is basically academic. It helps us to get a job and earn money in order that we can acquire the things we need. But is this the end of it all? As human beings we need to acquire human qualities – the quality of mercy, of compassion, of sympathy, of love, etc. As parents and teachers are we teaching our children these human qualities first and foremost? It is my view that we need to inculcate human values into our education system so that the children would grow up to be better men and women of tomorrow. Better in the sense that rape and the killing of women and children would be reduced to the greatest extent possible. The men and women of today generally lack the qualities of mercy, compassion and sympathy. Greed, anger, hatred and other evil traits have displaced the traits of love, brotherhood and compassion. From the behaviour of men and women today one is tempted to doubt whether these are men or beasts in human skin.
Therefore there is a dire need for change, and such change has to start with the children. There is an old saying that once a shrub has grown twisted it can be straightened, but when it becomes a tree it cannot be straightened. The only remedy is to cut down the tree. Therefore we have to start with the children in the schools.
I was listening to the MTV news on Friday night, June 6, 2008, when I heard the Minister of Education commenting on the allegation about a teacher abusing the children of a certain school, and he commented that there was need for moral education to be introduced into the school system.
I recall some time ago that an organisation did approach the Minister of Education at that time in order to introduce an Education in Human Values (EHV) programme into the school curriculum. However that Minister was not interested. The subjects which are to be taught in school on the EHV programme are truth, right conduct, love, peace and non-violence. The EHV programme is presently being taught in such places as Australia, Taiwan, India, Africa, etc.
I also heard that Trinidad and Tobago has started such a programme in some schools. I noted that the text book or the EHV programme is available in Guyana and that teachers would need to undergo a nine-month training period prior to commencing the programme.
Academic knowledge alone is not fulfilling to us as humans. It would help us to earn a livelihood but together with the EHV programme we would go beyond the earning of a living, and would be prepared for the challenges of life both morally and spiritually. It is my belief that such a programme in schools would reduce most of the crimes being committed by the children, the teachers and the adults today.
Based on the above I am calling on the organization mentioned above to have a meeting with the Minister of Education on the introduction of the EHV programme in the school curriculum.
Yours faithfully,
J Kadaru
That aspect of life should begin at home
I agree with all of the above, but the churches took on the moral responsibility of theaching us what is right from wrong. I guess from the look of things that has been a total failure.
Corporal punishment is now a no no in schools and in the home. I cannot say if that is right or wrong. All I can say is thanks to all the teachers that tarred my hide with the wild cane which kept me on the straight and narrow. Also thank you mom for whacking me with the coconut broom. I did not turn out to be the rocket scientist you wanted me to be but hey, I know the difference between right and wrong and I adhere to those principles.
I meet with many young Guyanese people at parties and gatherings and I find them to be the same friendly fun loving people that we were at their age. I find those that are gainfully employed, much more positive about life and their future and less prone to violence than those that are not. Is there a relationship?
I think that love and tolerance can be taught to our young children in a garden. All schools should have a garden. Children can go out and welcome all the garden creatures. Hello Mrs. butterfly, Hello Mr. Lizard. Hello Mrs. Ladybug. and in a little pond at the side of the garden bed sits our best garden friend to bull frog and uh oh on the tomato tree we see a big bad caterpillar. We must humanely evict him from the garden and not squish him under our feet, for he also was given a purpose on gods great earth.
When I was a kid going to school, we took great pleasure in the stoning of the frog and hence the local saying “what is fun for schoolboy is death for Crapoo”
And yes I am guilty as charged and even ashamed of my past actions, I simply did not know better.
When children are taught about the circle of life and the way all living things are interconnected, they will have a better understanding of love and human care and decency. All this can be taught in a simple garden.
Joe.
While I see the direction in which Mr. Coxhall is heading, I lament the fact that much of the analysis on the issue has hitherto taken place at an anecdotal level, and not enough effort has been made to assess/document the benefits/problems with current initiatives.
Such an initial assessment exists in the report “An Initial Assessment of the Stamp It Out Consultation”, found online at http://www.scribd.com/doc/2072405/An-Initial-Assessment-of-the-Stamp-It-Out-Consultation
Another such assessment of the benefit and need for corporal punishment in a range of disciplinary measures exists at the online report “THE CASE FOR CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN GUYANA”, found at http://www.scribd.com/doc/255891/THE-CASE-FOR-CORPORAL-PUNISHMENT-IN-GUYANA#
What should be clear, anecdotally, is that a so-called Education in Human Values (EHV) programme will NOT work outside of an equally strong programme in Religious Education (RE). It fact, it could easily be inferred from the available evidence that Moral Education (ME) has failed he Guyana educational system, and that RE should be reinstated.
One excerpt of “The Initial Assessment of the Stamp It Out Consultation” makes the following point to the church , and Minister Priya Manickchand, and illustrates the puzzling refusal of Minister Manickchand to address certain core issues:
“11. The attention of the Minister was drawn by a member of the religious community that he was a head of a home, and, having been exposed to Religious Education (RE), felt a severe disconnect with the debauchery and horror of the numerous tales of incest and molestation. Yet another point was made by a presenter that the horror situation described by the Minister in her presentation could in fact infer that Moral Education (ME) in schools had failed.”
“For the Ministry to then offer that “many perpetrators know about religious education” was disingenuous, since if the increase of assaults could be traced to a time after the introduction of Moral Education, then there was a valid case for doing away with it. Another contributor suggested “Values Education”, but this is synonymous with ME.”
“An immediate suggestion by the church could be that the reintroduction of RE rather than ME in schools would be an immediate part of proposed reforms, since, as Ms. Texiera pointedly asserted, each of the three great religions’ texts denounce rape with some intensity. We should note that Christianity, in particular, has a clear system of values that begins with “Thou shalt not”, and this is revered as a code of conduct by millions.”
“Another immediate suggestion could be that the Ministry of Education provide data to show if there was a correlation between the time of the removal of religious education in schools and the increase in incidents of molestation, etc. Ideally, this study should be done by an independent body. Gross methodological and factual faults in previous studies immediately rule out the ERC.”
The Minister has not, to my knowledge, responded to any of these concerns …