I expected someone from the Ministry of Education—education no less—to behave and act in a better manner. Last Wednesday an officer, presumably who reports directly to the Education Minister Mr. Shaik Baksh, barged into the Vryman’s Erven Secondary School.  She began walking around the building perusing the classes. Afterwards, she called a meeting in the head teacher’s office and began lambasting from Harry wrong to Harry right. I was sickened at this most unprofessional behaviour.

In fact, this person, who said she was sent directly by the Minister of Education to investigate that school, came to hold a meeting with the school’s Parent Teacher/Friends Association (PTFA), a meeting which I knew nothing about, and did not even tell the parents of my class children to attend. The meeting had a very poor turnout due to the fact that not many teachers knew about the meeting, and the entire idea was clouded in confusion and hear- say. About fifty parents in a school of over five hundred attended. Now, is that effective a meeting enough, when such an officer of the Ministry came to the region to address certain issues?

In Georgetown, there are usual advertisements in the newspapers when officers want to hold PTFA meetings at the school, but as usual, Georgetown is Guyana.

But I am dissatisfied how this officer conducted herself. She did not even want to hear from some of us in the meeting. She limited the number of comments we gave her, and I was made to understand she did the same later at the PTFA meeting in the school’s auditorium. How can we get anywhere in this education system with such persons? I don’t know what kind of report this person gave the Minister but I know it was a ‘garbage’ report. Vryman’s Erven Secondary is not the only school with problems in New Amsterdam and Berbice. There are some very hardworking teachers at this school, who contribute in some way or the other to the upliftment of that school. I was very discouraged by her remarks to everyone that afternoon—as if to say that nobody is doing anything and we are all trash.

Then this officer gave a Senior Mistress of the school the task to report to her about the happenings of the school in the weeks ahead. I would say, that is, arrogance meets arrogance.

Where is that support that our education officials give to our teachers instead of coming down on them and demotivating them in the process? We cannot get anywhere with such attitude. This officer did not even follow protocol by going first to the Department of Education in the region, or even to the head teacher’s office before perusing the school, then how can they demand we do the right thing, when they themselves are poor examples?