Dear Editor,
It was some time ago that I wrote on the curriculum our children have to complete and the attitude of teachers to completing the curriculum.
During the course of the same discussion mention was made of the number of private schools that are now providing healthy incomes for some of the same teachers who now run them, and also of the cost of private lessons to the parents, many of whom can barely afford to send their child to regular classes and must also find money to pay for extra lessons.
All of the preceding is still to be looked at, and I am hoping that some day soon Minister of Education Shaik Baksh may wake up to find that teachers in schools are not pulling their weight and many are gouging money from desperate and very concerned parents. I hope he does it before he leaves office in 2011.
Let me congratulate Mr Cleveland Thomas, headmaster of Christianburg Secondary School, for taking the stand he has. I am of the view that if you fail to obtain a passing grade in one class then you should remain in the same class and repeat the work instead of moving to a higher class. That is saying that it is ok to ‘fail.’ Is this what we want for our nation? When someone fails, sanctions should be imposed on them.
It was from the days of Burnham that our educational level started to go to the dogs, and the present government is doing its best to keep it there. They should take a tip from Mr Thomas. The man had the fortitude to stand up and say that he would not condone failure. Is that wrong?
I knew a young man who would normally cut high school because he did not like the teacher, or the teacher did not like him – and all those excuses. I had a chat with him and got him admitted to the New Amsterdam Technical Institute. The records will show that he did not miss a day in the two years he spent there, and he graduated with flying colours in electrical engineering. Schools should look for the stream that the child can flow in with the greatest of ease and gratification. Look for the likes and dislikes. Look for the child’s aptitude and help our children to shine in their ‘own colour’ rather than disillusioning them. Let me also say that if a child fails a second time in the same class he/she needs to be looked at carefully to discover the stream. You do not promote failure and you should never encourage it.
I also suggest that the Minister’s pays attention to the letter written by Eric Phillips (‘We need a national conversation on illiteracy’ SN, Dec 4).
Yours faithfully,
Charrandass Persaud
