Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr Hamilton Green’s letter on retaining skills when he cited his daughter’s frustration with GuySuCo (‘Are we serious about having Guyanese return to serve?’ SN, August 15), and a UK-based riposte from Mr Raymond Persaud (‘A university degree and job experience are entirely different things’ SN, August 17).
While I emphatically state that Mr Green’s daughter, or any Guyanese, should not be made to jump hoops to serve this country, a few points are apposite.
1. The age-old controversy over the optimum combination of academic training and practical experience is certainly a major part of the matter, but it would be tough, and probably unfair, to draw conclusions not knowing the specific position she finally secured, or the professional competence of her non-degreed superior. Suffice it to say that those with diplomas from agricultural schools (ECIAF in Trinidad and GSA in Guyana) who joined Bookers and GuySuCo can attest to how versed they were in land preparation, planting, crop husbandry, harvesting, etc, at the outset, but by dint of application and perseverance, they rose to be senior managers. Dependence on the experienced, and often unschooled, field staff always formed a significant part of such mobility.
2. For those who care to recall, there was a time when the party and government (remember paramountcy?) decreed that with the exception of cane-cutters (they were not yet ‘harvesters’) and certain other manual field categories, all recruits had to be sent by the Labour Exchange (where registration posed practical difficulties for many) and then sent by the party’s acolyte who headed the Local Democratic Organ, for which privilege one had to be a card-carrying member of the party. As expected, those already employed had to do their own jobs as well as for those who were sent mainly to occupy positions, and particularly for the period 1976-85 the industry was denuded of its best. So much for retaining skills!
3. Not to be outdone, the successor government has in recent years ensured similar practices in employment and promotions, where there are instances of very senior personnel who never worked on a GuySuCo estate (and with no agricultural training) are directing and managing agricultural activities for several production units. Little wonder the field – where the sugar is actually produced – has come to be in such a lamentable state.
4. I finally agree with Mr Green that the fault “may be with our leaders” and would go further to say that this has always definitely been the case. Sadly, Mr Green was himself one of those leaders.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
