SINCE the Industrial Revolution which began in the 18th century, free primary education and universal literacy of the population had been adopted as education policy in almost all states. In the late 19th century and in the 20th century, a number of extracurricular activities were used to assist the classroom in its drive to produce well-rounded students and two of the most important were the Scout Movement and the Cadet Corps. The activities of the Scout Movement are well known in its efforts at character-building of young people and the Cadets, both in its present form, where it is almost an adjunct to the classroom and in its older form, where it was related to the military. The older form was adopted from Britain and was used in the better British schools and at Queen’s College, to the time when the school was made co-educational. The newer form is the National Cadet Corps which has 34 schools affiliated with it in all 11 education districts and has a total of 2400 pupils who are members with 337 teachers. This style of Cadet Corps concentrates on inculcating discipline, reading skills, guiding pupils towards careers so that they would focus on their future lives and avoid falling into the syndrome of aimlessness and even crime. The Corps is exposed to a minimum of military drilling when they go to camps where they see different parts of the country and meet compatriots from different regions. The National Cadet Corps was first mooted when Queen’s College was made co-educational and its Cadet Corps was phased out, but it never got off the ground until it was resuscitated in 2018 and became a member of the Caribbean Cadet Association at the annual meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in 2019.

Guyana’s membership in the Caribbean Association was in keeping with the philosophy of the CARICOM movement. This year, the association met in Guyana with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) as hosts. The theme of the conference was: “Building Resilience, Fostering Networks and embracing New Norms.’ The Chairman of the Caribbean Cadet Association, Lt Col Nathan Hyacinth of St Lucia, remarked that the corps had successfully navigated the COVID-19 pandemic and had learnt a great deal from the adjustments it had to make and an example of this is seen where some of the participants are attending the present conference virtually.

Col. Omar Khan, acting Chief of Staff of the GDF, the host of the conference, recommended that the delegates focus on decision-making and reading, which would be beneficial to youth development. “Reading gives information and information aids good decision-making. We are who we are based on the decisions we made in our lives and it will also influence who we will be as we grow old. This forum is an opportunity for us to influence the youth at an early stage of their lives to make decisions that will have good consequences for them as they develop and thus be positively able to influence their peers and the environment in which they operate… Both the National Cadet Corps as well as the Caribbean Cadet Association have their positive and creative role to play in strengthening the education system.”

The National Cadet Corps, as it is presently constituted, plays a valuable role in the educational development of the country, but the older QC-style, more militaristic Cadet Corps could also play a useful role in national development. It taught a strong sense of patriotism and a lasting camaraderie among its members, transcending all social divisions and providing the upper echelons of the officer corps of the GDF.
Two or three of the Masters would volunteer to devote themselves to the cadet corps, train as GDF officers, and be commissioned. They would perform their usual teaching duties. All QC Masters in those years had attended British universities. In its last years before the corps was phased out, Capt. Cecil Barker, Officer Commanding, was a graduate of the University of London and taught Chemistry, and his Second in Command was Lieutenant Patrick Dial, who graduated from the Universities of Cambridge and London and taught History.

The boys were drawn from the Upper Fourth and Fifth Forms with a few Sixth formers who could afford the time from their A-Level studies. The cadet corps wore GDF uniforms, were drilled twice per week by GDF sergeants and during the August holidays, would attend a two-week camp at Tacama where they learnt all military techniques, including the use of firearms and the repairs of such arms. Boys who wished to choose a military career with the GDF or a career with the police would be absorbed as cadet officers in those forces when they left school. Among the QC cadets who joined the army were General Granger, General Joe Singh, Cols Roberts and Morgan and Commissioner of Police Laurie Lewis, among others. When these former QC cadets went for further training at Mons and Sandhurst, these institutions were surprised at how much of the curriculum they had already covered in the QC cadet corps.

We would suggest that the old QC-style cadets be continued in a few schools such as Queen’s College, President’s College and the SVN school at Cornelia Ida.