MY ROOTS dictate that I must, from time to time, relapse into the vernacular in which I feel quite comfortable.
Also, to be sure, those creolese expressions paint a quite graphic picture. The expression `dayclean’, for example, represents an entire essay encapsulated in one word.
So, you will excuse me when I use the word `belly wuk’ to transmit the feeling I got when I read the headlines `No Secondary School places for 5000 SSEE children’ and `Some 11000 students who took SSEE will need remedial work’.
I have no doubts that the 5000 students will eventually be placed; nor am I unaware of the billions that have been expended on education over the past decade.
However, thanks to one Walter Alexander, the Secondary Schools Reform Project Administrator, it is becoming even clearer that our students are leaving primary school greatly deficient, vis–a-vis the commencement requirements at Secondary School level. The majority of our graduates from Primary School have not mastered reading and basic mathematical skills.
I recall that in 1997, the Chief Education Officer - in a rare expression of frustration - revealed to us that many of his teachers were not as competent as they should be. The then Minister of Education intervened and opined that it was the system and not the teachers that was at fault.
Well, seven years have passed and the figures (not I) are telling you that we are sinking deeper in the education putta-putta.
Dear readers, fulminating about this problem is not enough. I, and others like me, have already called for the crisis in education to be treated as a National Disaster.
Since every sector and stratum of our society directly or indirectly feels the negative effects of a deteriorating education system, they must all raise their collective voices and demand - you hear me, demand not request - that this problem be given the significant attention it deserves.
We have committees being formed to ascertain the citizenry's opinion on matters ranging from race relations to Local Government Reform. Similarly, therefore, we must extract from the populace novel, even revolutionary, ideas to solve the problem. And let me hasten to emphasise that no idea should be discarded without serious consideration being given to the merits and demerits of the proposal.
Some of the advice might be distasteful and even run counter to government policy.
For example, the thrust towards egalitarianism in education, via the abolition of streaming might sound good to the poorer masses who instinctively oppose what they perceive to be elitism. Yet it is quite a debatable concept, and there are many who believe that if we proceed along an anti-streaming path, it will suck our already fragile educational system into a maelstrom from which we may never be able to extricate ourselves.
For one thing, more research must be done, the results of which will form the base for considered decision. Have we, for example, after such a long implementation period, done any research to ascertain whether it was beneficial to have gone the route of co-ed schools instead of single gender schools? Should such an assessment not be carried out now?
And there are other assessments needed - not lastly those that pertain to the calibre of our teachers. I for one will never ever get into a teacher-bashing mode, but I will also advocate that the performance of members of the teaching profession needs to be seriously evaluated.
Since we are speaking of evaluations and assessments; let's have an in-depth look at our University and our Defence Force, especially the cost-benefit analyses. Can we liberate our academic and other educated cadre to teach within the Secondary School network and at the Teachers Training College?
Believe me that there are several other components of the education system that need to be addressed. Problems in education cross political party lines. Solutions can be achieved with commitment and courage of those who sit in the decision making boardrooms.
But education is too important to be left to them alone.