Where is the education crisis?

THE political Opposition continues to bewilder the minds of our people with

the rattling up of all sorts of hysteria and in this regard their latest attempt has been APNU’s description of the education sector being in crisis, which warrants a Commission of Inquiry. Of course, as is customary, without producing any facts and figures to support their contention.
One would be foolish to deny that there is much more to be done to bring our education system to the desired level, but it is equally foolish to contend that it is in crisis and there is need for a Commission of Inquiry.
The fact of the matter is that our CSEC and National Grade Six Assessment examinations’ results have been steadily improving. And what is even more striking is the fact that increasingly, top performers are emerging from schools in rural communities, unlike the past when it was predictable that top performers would emerge from a few schools in Georgetown. We have achieved universal primary education and is on the verge of achieving universal secondary education as well.
Today we boast more and better equipped nursery, primary and secondary schools across the country, particularly in the remote communities. Our Teachers Training College is churning out an average of over 500 trained teachers annually, which is the highest figure in our history. This has been achieved through the establishment of in-service training centres across the country and the introduction of distance education. Teachers’ salaries and benefits have significantly increased over the past 15 years
Under this government, budgetary allocations have been increasing every year and constitute the largest slice in the national budget which is a reflection of the continued emphasis on improving the education system. This government has recognised the correlation between education and poverty alleviation and this is a major strategy in the national development strategy.
In addition, public education is partnered with a vibrant and buoyant private education system which collapsed under the diktat of the PNC government. Those who can afford it and have the desire to send their children to private educational institutions can do now do so. The private schools, to their credit, have been performing creditably.
Do these achievements constitute a crisis in our education system? Any objective observer would give a resounding no.
Where were those, who are now talking about an education crisis and the need for a Commission of Inquiry, when our entire social sector collapsed?
Where were they, when most of our school buildings were in a dilapidated state and teachers and students were coerced and forced into attending PNC rallies and functions to make up numbers?
Where were they when teachers were forced to cut canes when they were strikes in the sugar industry? Where were they when teachers were forced to work at Hope Estate which was owned by the Maximum Leader?
Where were they when a former education minister under the PNC government publicly admitted that the school system is producing functional illiterates?
Where were they when textbooks, furniture and other learning and teaching materials including chalk were in acute shortage, under one of the biggest hoaxes of free education from nursery to university?
Where were they when teachers were either dismissed or transferred far away from their homes because of their political views and affiliation?
Where were they when teachers were leaving the education sector in droves?
Where were they when Guyana moved from the most literate country in the English-speaking Caribbean in the early 1960s to the least literate by the 1980s?
Didn’t these happenings constitute a crisis? And why was there not a call for a Commission of Inquiry then?
The education minister recently made a sincere call for greater parental involvement in children’s education and of course any progressive and patriotic-minded person would support such a call, because all research data show that children who have their parents behind them perform better in schools. However, lo and behold, the opposition interpreted that as an attack on their supporters. How much more petty can we become?
It is clear that this drumming up of a crisis in the education system is geared towards diverting attention from the great strides we have made in the education sector and its destruction under the PNC government.
In fact, this government took our education out of a crisis and restored to a reasonable degree of decency and acceptability.

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