Dear Editor,
Recently, at Babu John, former President Jagdeo challenged the opposition to discuss substantive issues facing the nation which they believe need to be addressed and in which they believe the PPP has under-performed. I welcome this initiative by Mr Jagdeo, especially in light of mutual accusations directed by each of the two parties at the other, levelling charges of maintaining platforms of rabble-rousing and rhetoric without intelligent discussion. Perhaps it may be possible to elevate the tenor of our national political debate by conducting a discussion in your forum of issues which are important to the voting public, with the hope that we might provoke thoughtful responses from the powers that be and the powers that want to be. I trust you will permit space in your paper for this first sally, on the topic of education.
Education is an area of paramount importance in Guyana. However, the quality of many of our teachers is unsatisfactory, and the quality of our facilities is dismal. The few competent teachers at primary and secondary level often dilute the energy and professional dedication which they can bring to school by the prevalent practice of offering lessons after school, at a price, of course. Those among them who are less scrupulous conduct their official school time classes in such a way that only part of a given syllabus is covered, so that the paid lessons become a necessary supplement for a student to complete the syllabus.
Generally, the quality of teaching is reflected not only in examination results at CXC, CAPE and GCE, but also in the level of indiscipline among students in the schools, including absenteeism, rowdiness, violence and sexual permissiveness. The selection process into secondary school ensures that less than 5% of each common entrance class has a hope of qualifying for entry into one of the recognized secondary schools. The rest are condemned. The overall result is a low literacy rate, unemployable young adults, social deviance, and an unproductive work force. A publication of the Sustainable Development Networking Programme, a joint Government of Guyana and UNDP project which terminated in 2004, neatly captures the position in respect of education:
“Although Guyana’s educational system was considered to be one of the best in the Caribbean during the 1960s, it is probably among the weakest today. Its decline is due to a number of economic and social factors… These factors have led to a most unsatisfactory and unacceptable state of affairs: learning rates in the schools are extremely low; a large proportion of the teaching force is unqualified and untrained; absenteeism on the part of both teachers and students is rife; and textbooks and other instructional materials are often unavailable. Guyana’s success in attaining universal access to primary schools in the early 1970s has been eroded, and has been replaced by rising repetition and drop out rates. Moreover, a survey of school-leavers and the adult population has revealed alarmingly high levels of functional illiteracy.”
Recent advertisements by the ruling party remind us that education attracts the second largest allotment of public funds among the ministries, and we can all see how much has been spent building schools throughout the country. The Minister of Education has also said candidly and honestly that if the available resources are insufficient, then a need cannot be met. This is indisputable.
My questions then to both contestants are:
(1) Are you satisfied with the quality of education offered in Guyana at primary, secondary and tertiary levels?
(2) If you are not satisfied, what shortcomings have you identified and what causes have you deduced underpin these shortcomings?
(3) (To the incumbents) what measures have you put in place over the past five to ten years to improve the quality of education?
(3) Are you satisfied that these measures have produced the desired result?
(4) If you are not satisfied, what (further) measures do you propose to put in place in the next five years which you believe will alleviate the situation?
(5) (To the incumbents) why have you not already implemented these measures in the past five to ten years?
Yours faithfully,
Timothy Jonas
