COMING out of a forum of Commonwealth youth held in the Bahamas last June, which ran concurrently with the 19th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM), is the election of outgoing President of the University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS), Joshua Griffith, as Chairman of the Commonwealth Students’ Association (CSA) Steering Committee.
The students’ association, launched in 2012, was the first of its kind coming out of the Commonwealth group, and is aimed at representing the interests of students across the Commonwealth’s 53 member-countries.
Griffith’s appointment to the body came as the Commonwealth Secretariat celebrated its 50th Anniversary last June, having given 42 years of service to youth across the realm.
The Education Ministers’ forum in June was focused on linking quality education within the Commonwealth with equitable development.
YOUTH FORUM
Meanwhile, at the youth forum, youth delegates representing 17 member countries and two territories, engaged among themselves and their education officials on the role of students in development, as well as boosting productivity through quality education, among other things.
“We’ve thoroughly discussed quality education and what it means to have a quality learner [and] the environment for a quality learner,” said outgoing Caribbean and the Americas Regional Representative of the CSA Steering Committee, Tricia Teekah, in an interview with this publication.
Teekah, currently the Board Secretary of the Guyana National Youth Council (GNYC), recalled one of the key focuses of the Education Ministers being a remigrant scheme for reintegrating trained teachers into the region, and the integral role of this scheme to quality education and regional development.
She also emphasised the role and contribution of students in the education system, as well as the role of the CSA in facilitating this engagement.
At the level of the youth forum, she said, discussions reflected challenges to quality education such as mental health, disability, access to resources, the setting of classrooms, and revising the curriculum to become more fluid than the current system of standardised testing.
The 53 Commonwealth member-countries are spread across the Americas and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and the pacific.
Teekah noted that the challenges currently facing Africa relate to the affordability of education and the high number of girls throughout the continent who are not attending school.
As to the Caribbean region, she recalled the insistence of her group on the inclusion of male-marginalisation, and the high dropout rates of young males as one of the challenges for education in the Caribbean.
Aside from the foregoing issues, Teekah urged recognition of the challenges against the reintegration of teenage mothers into the education system.
ROLE OF CSA
The CSA had originally sought to represent the Commonwealth’s tertiary students, but a shift in mandate has seen the body now representing all students, regardless of academic level. There is some blur, however, on the role of the body to represent students older than 35, the international age limit for youth.
The CSA’s Steering Committee, the body authorised to conduct business for the CSA until its full formation, first came into existence at the 18th CCEM in Mauritius in 2012.
“The Steering Committee was just responsible for setting up a website, organising the first inaugural conference [in 2012], election of the Executive Committee and other basic things that relates to establishing the Commonwealth Students’ Association,” Teekah told the Guyana Chronicle.
The CSA intends to be a fully autonomous body, with funding coming from contributory fees paid by governments and other partners, as well as grant funding, but this could only happen if a quorum of members decide on the Executive Committee, thus replacing the Steering Committee.
Despite the adoption of the body’s Constitution, due to the inability of the body at the June meeting in the Bahamas to reach a quorum, youth delegates took a decision to have a new Steering Committee elected.
The CSA will continue to be headed by a Steering Committee until the next Commonwealth Youth Forum and CCEM meeting in 2017, or until a congress could be facilitated via videoconference. Until then, the body will continue to receive assistance from the Commonwealth Secretariat.
“What I need to do is to understand the system as best as I can and to work with the current members to set realistic goals,” Griffith, who assumes his role in two months, told this publication. The youth leader will cease to represent the UGSS and will take on his role with responsibility for millions of students across the world.
The CSA aims to represent and build the capacity of students and student organisations across the Commonwealth to become actively involved in development and education.
“We need Commonwealth Member States and student organisations to know that the CSA exists, and to come on board and to work towards making things happen for the benefit of students globally within the commonwealth,” Griffith urged.
At the national level, the Guyana National Youth Council (GNYC) is gearing towards a students’ association arm of the body integrated into the Council’s work and structure. Those plans are currently in its infant phase.
Meanwhile, education officials in Guyana are expected to have a follow-up meeting with the youth representatives of Guyana at the 19th CCEM in the Bahamas, on the way forward for development, education, and equitable opportunity in Guyana.
By Derwayne Wills
