Dear Editor,
The recent letter by Swami Aksharananda, the Principal of the Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) school, relating to the school’s recent CXC results is one of the most important educational statements carried in the media in recent years. It is the kind of statement one would have expected the educators of Guyana to have widely discussed. The Swami restated and proved by the performance of the Saraswati Vidya Niketan school a number of truths about Guyanese and Caribbean education of which the educators seem to be losing sight.
First truth: Extra lessons outside of school hours is a terrible blot on the present-day school system. Extra lessons deprive children of their childhood in that they are unable to socialize or play games and as a consequence their development is stultified. And extra lessons are a terrible oppression on parents’ money and resources. The old and great Queen’s College which produced boys who were brilliant and contributed to society all over the world never had extra lessons. Ask Generals (rtd) Joe Singh and Granger, Sir Sridath Ramphal, Dr Sam Hinds, Dr Luncheon, Mr Adam Harris, Dr Roopnaraine and others. Recently Chief Education Officer Olato Sam emphatically spoke out against extra lessons and the expected support from the education community was nil. Now, the SVN has spoken – no extra lessons with passes of 90% to 100% and children with high grades. The Ministry of Education and serious educators need to closely study this example.
Second truth: A child need not be a star at the Grade Six Assessment to do well in his or her further education. Children with mediocre Assessment grades have done very well at SVN. The school has shown by its performance that there is something wrong with mechanistically dumping people’s children into the less endowed schools on the basis of mediocre Assessment marks.
Third truth: Mathematics and English results at CXC have been poor in Guyana and throughout the Caribbean in contrast to Saraswati Vidya Niketan where 90% of the children have passed comfortably in these two subjects. A ding-dong row has erupted between Caribbean governments and the CXC administration but SVN has shown that you can’t blame the CXC administration. The Guyana Ministry of Education and even other Caribbean Ministries of Education should study SVN and consult with Swami Aksharananda about recapturing higher pass rates and grades in Mathematics and English.
Fourth truth: A child need not come from a rich family or live in a city with all its amenities to do well. SVN has conclusively shown that children from poor homes living in the countryside without many of the city amenities could do as well as any.
Fifth truth: The secondary schools need to recapture the old discipline and moral standards, since high academic standards relate to these. SVN has shown that by enforcing strict school discipline and good manners children become better scholars and are sought after by employers. One bank manager has
openly declared that he employs SVN graduates because they know how to treat customers and to help those who are infirm or aged or cannot read or write very well. (The name of the school indicates its moral discipline: Saraswati represents that aspect of God which is devoted to intellectual development and education, Vidya means knowledge of, and Niketan means institution. Christian church schools in former days all bore names indicative of moral discipline.)
In the interest of Guyana’s children, I would respectfully suggest to the Ministry of Education and other interested educators to treat Saraswati Vidya Niketan as a pilot school in the drive to raise the standards of education of Guyana’s children.
Yours faithfully,
P I Peters
