Dear Editor,
Mr Clive Fredericks’ letter captioned “The original intention of the Hinterland Scholarship Programme was that students live with families in Georgetown”, (08.03.07) is not an opinion shared by all hinterland scholarship awardees, both present and past. Indeed, if research is carried out, as was most likely done by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, on the present batch of hinterland students in Georgetown, most would agree that they would prefer to live in a dormitory with fellow hinterland students rather than living with guardians who are virtual strangers.
A dormitory to house all hinterland students has numerous benefits. It would enable a group of young people with similar backgrounds to live in an environment that would be closest to their original lifestyle.
As an ex-hinterland student one of the greatest challenges faced was trying to adjust your lifestyle to suit that of the guardian’s family. The culture was different, the food was different, the lifestyle was different. For some students it was a rather traumatic experience which was exacerbated by the attitudes of some guardians who felt that an Amerindian student was ‘ignorant’ and thus forced their beliefs upon the child.
I have personal evidence of some of the extreme difficulties that hinterland students have had to endure to “become integrated into the wider Guyanese society”. I lived with a guardian who was an alcoholic and who used my guardian allowance to purchase alcohol while I was forced to eat raw cassareep and ‘shine’ rice as my main meal on an almost daily basis. I lived in a room with four other strangers who used my hard earned toiletries with abandon. I could not even utter a complaint because I was the ‘outsider’ and they were family. Other students have told tales of being forced to endure poor meals and not being allowed to study at nights because the lights had to be turned off early. Yet others told stories where they were forced to attend the church of their guardian’s choice rather than their own.
This does not mean that there were not well intentioned guardians. But such a guardian was a rare commodity.
Within the last few years the Hinterland Scholarship Programme utilised the David Rose Boys Hostel as a dormitory for male students. This arrangement worked perfectly for the students who preferred such accomodation as against guardians. The academic results achieved from such an arrangement is testimony that a dormitory is the preferred mode of accomodation for the Hinterland Students. Indeed, it is probably because of the success of the David Rose Hostel scenario that the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs decided to construct a dormitory for all of its students.
Mr Fredericks’ argument that ‘students tend to study better in a home environment than in a dormitory’ may indeed be true. But what guarantee would a hinterland student have that he would actually be in an ‘home’ environment with a guardian? I visited the David Rose Boys Hostel when it was home to the male hinterland students and it was indeed a revelation to see the entire group of students studying together. Students from similar classes or institutions grouped together and did their studies. It must have been extremely beneficial because a few of those students are now pursuing studies at the University of Guyana.
What was definitely lacking during my days as a hinterland student were extra curricular activities. Because all of the students were with guardians, the only time that they got together was on ‘pocket allowance’ day or at student meetings. This changed dramatically when the David Rose Boys Hostel came into operation. After that, the boys were able to go and play games as a group in the afternoons and on weekends. They were able to be more involved in cultural activities. Living together seemed to embolden them thus making them more willing to participate in activities. Their attitude changed drastically and they became more committed to a team effort as against individual exploits.
Mr Fredericks was one of the few lucky students who was able to have a good guardian and it must have surely helped him. But for every student like Mr Fredericks, there were quite a few other students who experienced poor guardians and who were left more traumatised than “integrated”. Therefore, the question that needs to be asked is how many students would prefer to live a dorm life with their fellow hinterland students as against living with guardians?
From a quick check of some present and ex-hinterland students the overwhelming majority preferred to live in a dormitory.
Yours faithfully,
Ex-hinterland Student
M Abraham
