Dear Editor,
With COVID-19 having the world in various lockdowns, the education sector is being greatly affected. Even though many parents are not working full-time and children are home most of the time, I expected that there will be great improvement. Incidentally, that’s not the case, even though the government is trying its best to ensure there isn’t a lapse. All efforts could be seen and the government is ensuring that all methods are utilised and new methods explored.
Many parents and children could be seen traversing to schools in order to submit the work that children are doing at home which they received either by worksheets or via the internet. Data usage has increased immensely as most of the work and research is being done through the internet.
Editor, many parents and children could be seen daily moving around with cellphones and some attention can be drawn to their phones as they shuffle from place to place. Naturally, one would assume that they are well versed in using a cellphone and are quite au fait with surfing the internet after spending so much time online. To my dismay, that expectation was shattered recently based on my experience which I’ll outline below.
Due to the lockdown, many courses are being offered online either for free or a small fee. In some cases, scholarships are being offered by many universities and even the Government of Guyana in collaboration with other universities is offering the GOAL scholarships. It should be noted that many of the courses being offered require minimal or no qualifications. Knowing that this might be a rare opportunity, at all the places I frequent, I’ve been informing young people of the opportunities that exist and I educate them of the benefits. Many seemed interested and I even started to forward the links to them so that they could register or explore their options. To my amazement, upon following up to see if they are pursuing the opportunity, everyone was having a problem and in most cases, the same problems. Because everyone is in possession of a cellphone, I assumed that they would be able to go through the process easily. Instead, their complaints are that they cannot find the sites (even though I send them the links), they cannot navigate on the sites, or they are finding it hard to register. Many don’t even have an email address and don’t know how to sign up to get one! Nevertheless, I managed to help a lot of them and advised them to make the effort to pursue their education.Finally Editor, I’ve repeatedly said that with the excitement behind the discovery of oil in Guyana, without a doubt, we will be attracting lots of skilled people to Guyana, and if we are not prepared to compete with them for jobs, we will end up in a disadvantageous position. Presently, lots of opportunities exist and many more will be emerging for us to further our knowledge/skills. The way I am seeing it, the Government of Guyana is making all attempts to ensure that it’s easily accessible and that equal opportunities exist for everyone and everyone should take the opportunities that are being presented to them. For me, it doesn’t make any sense for someone walking around with the most expensive phone and not knowing how to use it except for Facebook, WhatsApp, or making Tik Tok videos, when that same cellphone could be used to enhance their career!
It tells me that we have a long way to go.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
