Dear Editor,
There are probably not many alive who know of the Adult Education Association, and its existence since the early 1960s, when teams led by the late Harold B. Davis, Magda Pollard, Sybil Patterson, would dedicate their weekends to driving over the dirt roads as far as to county Berbice to conduct educational sessions with deprived persons. They covered other communities as well. The AEA has remained a non-profit development organisation that has provided support to persons who could not otherwise afford the education they need these past fifty plus years, albeit supported by modest government subventions. It continues to operate in unpretentious premises located at 58 Carmichael Street, Georgetown.
The government funding also allowed the Association to conduct outreach programmes for needy children in some suburban areas – by no means comparable to the more touted GOAL initiative, but educational nonetheless. Now to the chagrin of this small team of helpers, the particular outreach has had to be suspended. Reportedly, government funding has been withdrawn, for no ‘transparent’ reason that anyone could understand – an act of profound contradiction to the repeatedly emblazoned insistence by the very decision-makers on ‘education’ being ‘key’. It would appear that apart from GOAL, ‘education’ is not intended to be ‘Adult’. What a testimonial to ‘One Guyana’s’ ambition to upgrade ‘Human Development’.
Sincerely,
Elijah Bijay
