Dear Editor,
I have been horrified after learning of the spate of fatal and other crimes committed by the youths in the recent past. And it has spurred me to thinking. This letter addresses that kind of behaviour. But before I get there may I make one suggestion to the Minister of Education with responsibility for youths.
Education is the bedrock on which a nation stands, on which a nation builds a solid foundation, on which we mould the nation. I have been perturbed by the emphasis placed on the Grade Six Assessments as the entry point to higher secondary education. I feel that the bulk of the nation’s children either fail the Grade Six or never had the opportunity of being so tested. Speaking philosophically, education is the birthright of every human child; it is the nation’s debt. Even the Human Rights Commission has so declared. And it should not be handed over to money hawkers. It should be firmly planted on the laps of skilled educators. Children now left out should be aptitude tested and appropriate institutions of learning be created; it is the state’s liability and responsibility.
It will be recalled that I had created a high school in Kitty, (KPCollege), which catered for this forgotten class; some paid full fees, some paid a part and others paid none. In the last category I recall one particular child who was the son of the woman who sold tidbits on the roadside by the school bridge. I called the young fellow and asked him why he was not in school. He blamed his mother. I enquired from the mother who told me she could not afford the clothes much less the fees. I sent the kid to my wife asking her to return the fellow properly attired for school. Half an hour later the kid returned in sparkling attire ‘yachtings’ et al.
I put the boy in the appropriate class and watched him advance. He skipped a form or two and made it to Queen’s College. He shone at the Ordinary Level as he did at Advanced Level and won for himself a scholarship to university. Here he made himself a medical doctor, and he returned home to pioneer the medical school for his country.
He is Clarence Charles, who now has a healthy practice in the Caribbean. I can write a whole host of stories of this kind but I use this verifiable one merely to emphasize the fact that there are no castaways ‒ only no opportunity.
Since I am here, may I say a few words in relation to CY (Clive Thomas). I know that after all these years he has persisted with the cost of rice production. Try this: he should first recall our textbook; there was a certain middle 19th century philosopher who said that as capitalism winds itself to extinction it will leave certain vast places abandoned. If one drives east from New Amsterdam to Crabwood Creek looking right one will see swaths of land now left abandoned, some overgrown with weeds. At 47 Village, the Police Chief can point out his grandfather’s land which was lovingly called ‘Houseland.’ One can see the waste, but it was that land which the old people cultivated and from which they made a decent living with some extras to pay high school fees and from which the Minister has benefited. With a little help Rupert’s castaways will work wonders.
Any feedback is most welcome, as this debate should be prominent on the table. Writers may let me get their printed work by email: babiescryall@gmail.com with name of publication, as I have limited access to the newspapers. Additionally, only my students may call 1-347-447-5005.
Yours faithfully,
Kenneth Persaud
