Relevance of Carnegie School of Home Economics remains undiminished

Facilitator Carlene Bagot (left) with CSHE principal Myrna Lee
Facilitator Carlene Bagot (left) with CSHE principal Myrna Lee

Last Friday, a modest ceremony to bring to a close a short cake-making course at the Carnegie School of Home Economics (CSHE) – one of the many ‘give-back’ initiatives by Guyanese who have in one way or another, experienced the institution – afforded us the opportunity to have a brief, but while it lasted, leisurely conversation with Myrna Lee, the principal of the institution.

The CSHE is currently in its 86th year of existence and in its capacity as one of the oldest formal educational institutions in Guyana, its most noteworthy accomplishment has been the fact that it has, over those years, served as a provider of skills training in some of the country’s most important service sector-related disciplines. Some overseas institutions and cruise ships have also benefitted from training provided by the CSHE.

This time around the benefactor was Carlene Bagot, a London-based Guyanese whose Cake-making Course is her second hands-on contribution undertaken during successive holiday visits to Guyana. On Friday, her end-of course presentation drew attention to, among other things, the need for the CSHE to raise its game to take account of the broader expectations of the country’s hospitality industry as Guyana becomes part of the oil and gas industry. That in a sense, could well be seen as a wake-up call to government to begin to get its act together in terms of just where it intends to go in better positioning the institution to play its desired role.

At last Friday’s closing ceremony, the school’s principal was going  over the arrangements for the modest programme with a fastidiousness that might have caused one to think that it was an end-of-course graduation exercise and that dignitaries and high officials were scheduled to be part of the occasion, That, she says, is her way. Even the ‘little things’ as far as the CSHE is concerned, mean a lot to her. A pleasant and decidedly unassuming woman, she appears open to ideas as to just what can be done to take the school forward.

During the days prior to the event when arrangements were being made for modest media coverage she always seemed busy; once you probed her distraction it quickly occurred to you that her responsibilities as principal of the institution have made her an able multi-tasker, so that rather than indulging in the ‘luxury’ of assigning demanding administrative tasks to subordinates, she performs those herself, without murmuring or fretting over the fact that like so many low-key but important national institutions, the CSHE is stricken with a shortage of the range of skills required to properly position itself to make the kind of contribution required of it.

Founded in 1933 on a grant from the Carnegie Trustees and formerly known as the Carnegie Trade School, the CSHE’s original objective was “to relieve unemployment among women.” It has continued to help shoulder that responsibility whilst gravitating into a bewildering array of other pursuits, not least those that have to do with helping to restore a sense of pride and self-esteem among young Guyanese women who may have, for one reason or another, either lost or perhaps never really benefitted from any real sense of purpose.

Watching the students, participate in last Friday’s event served as an

opportunity to reflect on the manner in which,  the institution has served not only as a ‘life-saver’ for young Guyanese who may otherwise have gone through their lives without any formal training, but also providing training in skills, which are relevant to Guyana’s development. Ms Bagot, the provider of the training programme appeared suitably pleased. The attendees, perhaps, were contemplating the commercial value, of an instruction in cake-making that had cost them nothing.

Mrs Lee seemed pleased too. She has embraced the responsibilities with which she has been assigned with a sense of loyalty derived from her substantive profession as a teacher. If you look carefully enough you might catch glimpses of those occasions when she becomes caught up in the moment, seemingly acutely aware of the weight of those responsibilities and the need to press on with the task of discharging them.

Over many decades, it does not appear to have dawned on government that the under-resourcing of the CSHE has served to place serious limits on the capacity of the institution to achieve; and this has been the case despite the fact that over the years, it has more than proven its worth, delivering on its role as a training institution. The CSHE boasts impressive numbers of former students who, these days, either run businesses of their own or are otherwise employed in positions of importance at institutions both inside and outside Guyana. And while government, over the years, has been guilty of paying insufficient attention to the needs of the institution, the CSHE has done well in looking past the official neglect and simply ‘soldiering on’ with what it perceives to be its responsibilities…and for all of its material shortcomings it has managed to muster a sense of poise in so doing.

Despite talk in recent years of the establishment of a more modern, more elaborate Hospitality Institution, the CSHE remains unique in terms of the services that it provides. That notwithstanding, there has been no serious initiative to afford the institution the payback that it so richly deserves by significantly upgrading its physical premises or meaningfully ‘beefing up’ its inventory in order to ensure that it remains in step with the requirements of its purpose. The drab, cream-ish, antiquated structure – almost certainly among the oldest buildings in the capital – that has for decades occupied the corners of D’Urban and High streets, has become a monument – as much as a mind-boggling official failure to recognise the evolving role of the institution – to the enduring relevance of the contribution that the institution has to offer. Carnegie still persists in the pursuit of its mission looking largely to private benefactors for some of the resources that it needs. 

Somehow, for all its undernourishment the CSHE has managed to ‘keep up appearances,’ carefully concealing its poverty beneath its poise. This, one suspects, is a tribute to the determined efforts of the succession of Principals and staff that have passed through the institution.

You get the feeling that with greater official effort, the institution can deliver more. There is no reason, from this writer’s perspective, why the CSHE cannot be afforded a restaurant of its own that serves both as an incubator for teaching all of the various aspects of restaurant management and as an income generator. One feels that a meaningful venture into an entrepreneurial excursion of its own can help wean the CSHE off its joined-at-the-hip relationship with the Ministry of Education, the positive effects of which are  not readily apparent.

The private sector too, is guilty of some measure of indifference to the CSHE. Theirs is a posture that overlooks the role that the institution continues to play in providing skills for the food and hospitality industry. Here, it is not necessarily a question of providing funds, supporting the institution with skills in areas such as business management. There may well be some measure of virtue in the creation of a business arm to the institution, leaving the School to get on with its training unencumbered with the other chores.