Dear Editor,
Teachers complain of being overworked but still our exams results are dwindling. Most private schools seem to be improving but lots of them are just there without producing any tangible results.
In many foreign countries whose pattern we try to adopt, the government monitors the private schools but in Guyana that doesn’t seems to happen. There are many private schools about which questions should be raised, but I will pinpoint one on the West Coast. This school has been in operation for a number of years and most people passing by could observe the children bracing the locked gates every morning before the owner of the school takes time off from their busy schedule to come and open the gates. Sometimes they have to brave the early morning sun or rain, and there’s no shed where they can shelter. Some of the children complain of being forced to help clean up the school because of the limited cleaners they have. Unlike other secondary schools in Guyana, each class has one teacher who has to teach all the subjects, instead of having one teacher for English, Mathematics etc, and one has to wonder if they all are qualified to teach all the different subjects they are teaching.
Reading one of their fliers, I observed everything typed in capital letters with no full stops and commas where they are supposed to be. Words are mispelt like “groum” instead of ‘groom.’ If you are trying to get your children to take summer classes and you get a flier with that, then I am quite sure you would not take a chance with them. If the government is monitoring them, I would like to know if this is acceptable.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
