Dear Editor,
Mr Carl Greenidge, Ms Amna Ali and I were quoted in a Kaieteur News’ story on the recent CXC results (KN, September 19). We were all in different ways, among other things, critical of the government’s handling of public education and the Education Minister’s apparent declaration of victory in the face of what overall is a dismal showing by our students.
We also took note of the outstanding performances by a small minority of our students. As I said in the KN story and in a letter published in both Kaieteur News and Stabroek News, “No doubt, those students who excelled along with the teachers at those schools that did well should be commended. But the results show clearly that despite some excellent individual performances our children as a group continue to under-perform. This is cause for great concern.”
Yet in a response to our comments, the Minister of Education (KN, September 20) gave the impression that we failed to recognize those students who did well. The Minister committed the basic error of assuming that criticism of failure automatically means disregard of success. I fully understand the Minister’s instinctive need to defend her stewardship of the education system. But she has to understand that over-emphasis on the successful minority of students and the silencing of the plight of the majority is itself a major source of our woes. It is for that reason that I and others have made the linkage between social class/poverty and the examination results.
The Minister sought to refute this thesis by pointing out that some of the outstanding students came from poor families. I knew that she was obviously talking about a small number of cases—more the exception than the rule. But I did not realize where she was going with that line until I got to the last paragraph of the story which I now quote verbatim: “She said that if the opposition wanted to be helpful to Guyana and to the country’s children, in addition to participating in public forums on how to improve pass rates; or notifying her of their personal views, ‘one of the most important things they could do, that would go a long, long way, would be to talk and counsel their constituents on the importance of family involvement and parental support to children in their school years and after.’”
The Minister is a lawyer and lawyers are good at taking things to their logical conclusion. So here we go. The Minister counsels us in the opposition to counsel our constituents on family values, in particular the value of education and educational support. Fair comment. But let me draw some inferences that may or may not have been intended by the Minister. Ms Ali, Mr Greenidge and I are all APNU. APNU’s constituents are predominantly African Guyanese. So it seems to me that here is an acknowledgement by the Minister that there is a problem with parental support in the African Guyanese community. I don’t know what percentage of those successful students from poor families referred to by the Minister is from the African Guyanese community. Maybe not much. I am also inferring that the Minister is urging us, the African Guyanese political leadership, to do something about the problem she observed and she thinks we are best placed to do so. Good.
When I made my initial comments I hesitated to elaborate on the racial aspect of our education problem. I know it is there. But I knew that I would be accused of dragging race into the discourse. So even though the Minister never used the words race and African Guyanese and may not have even intended her remark to be read that way, she has done us a big favour.
I know some of us may be peeved that an Indian Guyanese leader is telling African Guyanese how to fix their business. Some of us would correctly ask if it is not also the Minister’s business to help with the counselling of all constituents, regardless of their party affiliation. But let me say I generally agree with the Minister’s sentiments as I interpreted them. Black People and the Black Community have let down our children generally, but particularly as it relates to education. The Minister’s comment, though coming in the form of a scolding and partisan rebuke, should be a wake-up call for African Guyanese; we have to play our part ‒ individually, as families and as communities ‒ in stopping the education slide in our communities.
This is part of what we started to do at the Forum on African Guyanese on August 4, which was maliciously described by one of the Minister’s colleague-ministries as a plan to destabalise the Government of Guyana. Let me end with this quote from my letter of September 20: “Poor people who have to hustle and/or work several jobs to make ends meet obviously do not have the time to oversee and monitor the children’s progress. Allied to that is the decline of the communities as spaces of collective pride, dignity, culture and learning. Education is no longer projected as the gateway to individual and collective overcoming… While I believe that turning around our education system is a national issue that must be addressed at the top, I do believe that communities and so-called civil society have an important role to play. The spirit of volunteerism needs to be rekindled whereby our educators, current and retired, see the development of education not only as entrepreneurship but also as a civic and communal responsibility.”
Yours faithfully,
David Hinds