The Minister of Education has just assured the nation that by 2025 – which coincidentally is when the next national elections are due! – teenagers in our mudland would have universal access to secondary education. Thing is, your Eyewitness NEVER even imagined we didn’t have universal access!! He had assumed that those kids who weren’t attending secondary school had CHOSEN to do so! You know…they’d rather go into fishing or farming, or just hanging around on street corners in villages and around the Stabroek Market in Georgetown!!
Maybe that IS so – cause the Minister commented that the school system was now “retaining” more kids than before. So, since they’re not locking them in, more kids gotta be deciding to remain in school after primary! Might it be due to their expecting jobs gonna be opening up that’ll demand a high school education?? If so, maybe we should make secondary education compulsory up to age 16, like in the UK – rather than 14, like it is now??
But your Eyewitness thinks we might be putting the cart before the donkey. (We never really did move on to horses, did we?) We ought to get a handle on why exactly those kids didn’t continue through secondary school. Surely, it wasn’t because there weren’t enough spaces for them!! We all know by now that a major part of the problem is some kids aren’t interested in the TYPE of education the secondary schools were offering!! Too academic!! Does every school kid HAVE to solve quadratic equations?? What in the world have we used them for, after torturing us for years??!!
There’s been talk about increasing the number of classes in technical and vocational educational training (TVET). Well, we ought to be talking a tad more focusedly, and accelerating the rollout of programmes across the country.
Back in the day, the PNC had introduced the National Service, which played a role in delivering this type of education. Problem was the military component Burnham insisted on to bolster his security. And also, there weren’t enough jobs when the graduates returned to civvy life. The TVEC schools should fill this void, and the specific courses should match the needs of the evolving economy.
And it’s not only the new factories and mega farms that’ll need skilled workers. Just look at what the thousands of new homes have – air conditioning, washers, generators, solar heating, etc. Each of these equipment gotta be serviced regularly – and occasionally repaired. And all of this on top of the now computer-aided reconditioned vehicles that are already mandatory for each household – and need servicing as soon as they roll off the wharves!!
All in all, kudos to the Govt…but let’s use a rifle rather than a shotgun approach!!
…cricket
Well, now that the T-20 Hero CPL Tournament – and the Cricket Carnival to which it’s evidently now joined at the hip – are over, let’s talk a bit about cricket in its wider context. Meaning that since clearly the place of cricket in our hearts is unquestioned, we gotta ensure it’s well taken care of. Can’t take it for granted!! So, since we mentioned “schools”, why not make it compulsory that every school – primary and secondary – have a cricket programme??
And don’t say it can’t be done!! Back in the day – when conditions were quite dire under the Brits’ colonial jackboots, according to our political leaders – that was the case; so, why not now that oil money is gushing into our coffers!??! While the Brits might’ve selectively and opportunistically used the rules of cricket, who can doubt they built team spirit, cooperation, integrity, pride; and, most of all, rewarded merit, regardless of one’s wealth or lack thereof!!
With cricket in schools, maybe we might even straighten out our politics?!! Dreamin’?
