President David Granger yesterday pledged to arrest the decline of President’s College (PC), which he would like to see open a new chapter in science and technology education in the country.
“Poetry is good, history is good, farming is good and sports is [good] but we have to open this country. We have to build highways, bridges and factories. To develop this country, we need engineers, mathematicians, architects, and scientists. We need to study biology and chemistry and physics and zoology if we are to make use of these abundant resources which God has given us,” Granger said yesterday during a “fact-finding” visit to the school.
He called for PC along with other secondary schools to take the lead in science and technology education.
“When I was young, they spoke of the six sisters: rice and sugar, bauxite, gold, diamond, timber, [and] fish. Now I am getting old our economy is still based on these. We have to start making things, manufacturing. I look to you, the next generation, to move the economy forward and it will start here with your education,” he told students, having emphasised the need to accept and adopt new technology as the country moves forward. “We can’t live in the past, we have to look to the future,” he also said. PC, which was founded by former president Forbes Burnham, was at one point a premier institution, with students selected to attend from the top 2% of those who wrote the Secondary School Entrance Examination.
The school has, however, been in decline over the years. As the president visited the various facilities, including the laboratories, classrooms, dorms and kitchen, there was overwhelming evidence of neglect.
The carpentry equipment appeared to have been installed when the school was first built. The Home Economics Department is operating with one working stove and crumbling countertops, while the Electronic Technology teacher moonlights as a maintenance man to keep his inadequate equipment functioning. The library is also woefully understocked.
The students, who appeared have adapted to these conditions, including the bats that were swarming about their heads, were urged by the president to embrace their education as gateway to a good.
Granger promised to provide, within the limits of government resources, “the best possible facilities to enable [PC] to achieve high academic standards.
“There are local issues affecting this campus which we will address. We are planning the 2016 budget and we could give to the college as much as possible financial support to solve the problems which exist. We want students leaving PC who are up to the standard of any other college in Guyana, Queen’s College, Saint Stanislaus College or Bishops’. This is a college that should not be allowed to deteriorate, whose standards should not be allowed to fall.” After a meeting with senior staff members, Granger told reporters that his visit was purely a “fact finding” and not policy-making visit.
“I came here to find out what the needs of this college are and I will meet with the ministry and see how those needs could be met. It is obvious that physical infrastructure needs rehabilitation and the staffing situation needs to be addressed,” the president said, while noting that he “wanted to be informed about the conditions at this college. It is a very important part of our education system.”
He said he also wanted to assure Guyanese that he is committed to ensuring that not only President’s College but all of the secondary schools are performing at the highest level.
Even as he promised to do his best to address the needs of PC, Granger noted that he must make sure that all children of Guyana have access to the services of the state, not just the 600 who attend PC but the 75,000 students in all the secondary schools across Guyana.
He stressed that there must not be an “education apartheid” within the country. This apartheid, he noted, is developing in the country since between 500 and 600 students drop out of school every month.
“If a lot of people continue to drop out and few people continue to succeed, a gap opens between the few highly educated and the mass of poorly educated. This gap will create an unequal society. To close that gap, we must provide access to quality education. We must grant all our children access to quality education, not 5 top schools not 10 top schools but 50 top schools,” Granger said.
