Professor highlights marginalisation, exclusion of Indians by CXC
Trinidadian Professor, Dr Kumar Mahabir, presented a research paper on the marginalisation and exclusion of Indians by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) in its History and Literature curricula.
The presentation was made at the “Conference on Inclusive Education: Achieving Education for All” at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, on February 15, 2017.
The conference was organised by the School of Education of the UWI and Potsdam University in New York.
UTT Professor, Dr Kumar Mahabir
Mahabir is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Education Programmes at the Corinth Campus of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).
In his presentation, Mahabir argued that Indians constitute about one and a half million persons in the English-speaking Caribbean. They constitute about half of the population in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname, and form the largest minority in Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and Grenada.
Using content analysis and Paulo Freire’s theoretical framework, his presentation examined the extent Indians, and their indentured forbearers, have been excluded in CXC, Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examination (CAPE) History and Literature syllabi.
According to Mahabir, in its mandate to pursue socially-just educational practices, The United Nations (UNESCO), the World Forum in Dakar, and the World Conference on Education for All in Thailand, have recommended that minority ethnic groups should not be disadvantaged in receiving an education, as well as in being excluded in the content of the curriculum.
