EDUCATION Minister, Shaik Baksh, has quite correctly issued a call for the restoration of high values of discipline in students and the rekindling within the ranks of teachers, the element of commitment to the job which once was a hallmark of the education system. His call was timely because discipline within the school system has become a concern, not only of educators but of the wider society and the decline must be arrested.
The minister made the call at a ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 26th batch (1959-1960) of graduating teachers of the former Government Training College at the Cyril Potter College of Education, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown.
The decline of high levels of discipline was not an overnight process and cannot be viewed in a vacuum. It is a complex issue which has to be handled expertly to avoid wrong conclusions and ultimately wrong solutions.
The education system evolved from the British when this country was a British colony so the value systems of discipline were based to a large extent on those of the British, which had definite merits and provided a worthwhile pattern.
When Guyana became independent, like many other former British colonies, the new leaders began to stamp their authority and everything that emanated from the colonial power was dumped – good or bad – and new values began to emerge based on the diktat of the new political leaders.
So almost everything that existed during the colonial period became bad and a new value system began to emerge, which was not based on any standard but rather on a policy of paramountcy of the party.
No one was required to be observant of traditional protocols. A party card of the then ruling party did the job. In fact, one could have been highly qualified academically but that did not necessarily guarantee a job if at the same time one did not hold a ‘Green Card’.
Following the end of the Cold War and the emergence of liberalisation and globalisation, cultural penetration bolstered by economic power became the order of the day. And this cultural penetration has been helped by technological advancements which ensure no one is insulated even from the negatives of other peoples’ cultures.
In the process, the negatives of the more powerful societies have penetrated societies such as Guyana and the value systems of discipline that were once the norm have been abandoned or subverted.
The education system is a microcosm of the larger macro-societal system and therefore a breakdown of discipline and value systems in the wider society will adversely affect it because there is a dialectical inter-connection between the macro and micro systems.
Guyana has generally been a reactive rather than a proactive society and until and unless this attitude is reversed, it will be difficult to arrest social decline, which includes indiscipline in the school system.