Blowing…high school trumpets

While 1st August is Emancipation Day – every August, we also stage our annual examination-results circus – into which we’d channelled the meaning of “emancipation”!! “Education” was gonna set us free!! So our newspapers publish front pages chock-full of beaming, young faces of our High School High Flyers – in capitals!!  There’re also tables on the CSEC and CAPE results, Ministers congratulate the nation, schools celebrating their “champions” – this year with 26 CSEC passes!! And inevitably, social media keyboard warriors bemoaning the dominance of one ethnic group!!
Going back to the constipated British school system, the underlying assumption has been that our young’uns had to pile up an astounding number of passes just have a stab at university education that would make them into “professionals” – to live like the White Man!! So we’ve arrived at a point where 20+CSEC subjects or 11+ at CAPE have become ho-hum!!
Now, to be fair, examinations matter since every country needs standards – and students should demonstrate they’ve soaked up knowledge and discipline. But we’ve treated CSEC and CAPE results as though they’re national Olympic medals – remember being regaled about Burnham’s scholarship from 80 years back??!!
But from what your Eyewitness observed on this go-round,  the obsession may finally be losing some of its glitter – just when the spoils are more evenly spread across the regions!! Looks like the Government’s phenomenal expansion of free opportunities for tertiary education – think GOAL for starters!! – is changing the equation!! Folks may be realising that if youths don’t emerge from secondary school with an alphabet soup of CSEC and CAPE passes, they can still get useful tertiary training, qualifications, and skills!!  The high schools exams ain’t the final verdict on their economic future no mo!!
And that’s EXACTLY how it oughta be!! A teenager who ain’t cut out to become a university academic can now become an excellent electrician, technician, nurse, agricultural specialist, programmer, builder, mechanic, entrepreneur or other skilled professional!! Our fastest growing economy in the world needs competence in all these areas – not just people who’ve shown they can sit exams!!
To your Eyewitness’s relief, the annual results ritual might be becoming less about asking, “How many subjects you pass?” and more about asking, “What can you do next?”!! That’s progress since it’s kinda absurd celebrating students collectively producing dozens of distinctions while simultaneously wringing our (national) hands about shortages of skilled workers!! Now, this doesn’t mean we don’t need CSEC and CAPE no mo – we still need doctors and lawyers and suchlike!! But in the end, EDUCATION is supposed to open doors – and it would be more than passing strange if we keep insisting that children first collect 20+ keys!!
Before allowing them to LOOK for the door!!

…mo oil out!
Well, our 5th FPSO – the Errea Wittu – is steaming into our waters this week to begin pushing out more than 250,000 Barrels of oil daily – to take our present 950,000 barrels’ production way beyond ONE MILLION BARRELS daily!!  We’ll now join the big boys by pipping Algeria and almost equalling Qatar at # 16 on the world oil hit parade!! That’s right – Qatar!! Errea Wittu will be dropping anchor in Uaru, ExxonMobil’s fifth offshore development in the Stabroek Block – with more than 800 million barrels of recoverable oil!!
And to ensure that happy days are really here, Pressie also revealed that ExxonMobil – having recouped their  massive initial capital expenditure in exploration and drilling, etc – have exited their contractual 75% expense deduction from cost oil!! That had left us with 50% of the remaining 25% – 12.5% –- added to the 2% royalty Trotman “negotiated” – wink, wink!!
After operating expenses, Pressie said we’ll now be scooping up 40% of the MILLION PLUS cost oil daily!!
Woooo!!

…APNU away
Asked to submit 3 members of the Local Government Commission (LGC)  — as constitutionally mandated for the LOO – Sanction Man “consulted” APNU – and then blanked it  by choosing 3 from his WIN party and 1 from Amanza’s FGM!!
Cold!!!