Dear Editor,
There has been significant negativity surrounding the elevation to the demanding position of Minister of Education (ag) of Ms Nicolette Henry. I say that it would be better to give her a chance; a chance to deliver and prove herself. She could shine in the crucible of test, and surprise all.
For certainty, Minister Henry has made her share of errors; she must take great care to be humbled by them and learn from them, while growing along the way. A close look at some of those same snafus indicates that they were more embarrassing to her than material in nature. I urge her to seize the moment; this can be her time.
The new Minister has youth on her side. That helps to identify with the modern emerging Guyanese student, and their anxieties, fears, and peculiar interests. It might be constructive to start from scratch and take an unprecedented look at curriculum, methodologies, standards, and all the rest from a fresh and different perspective. Everything should be on the table and up for scrutiny; that CoI report is a good beginning. Meanwhile, those with mindsets from the slate pencil era must either be converted, or they must go.
Click and point (or wireless) should come to mean running away from the stodgy and those set in the old ways that have failed, while a mouse should come to represent more than a feared rodent only. I believe that the acting Minister can bring her own version and vision of what 21st century education in Guyana ought to encompass, in terms of how it should appear to be, and actually be. It is a long hard slog ahead, but her relative youthfulness should engender the willingness to break from the established patterns; to be courageous enough to take reasonable measurable risks; and to propel a hidebound and moribund institution from the freeze of the Ice Age to the mysteries of global warming, and the challenges of globalization.
The Minister could be inspired by overachievers like Michael Jordon and Shiv Chanderpaul (not the most talented, but certainly the most determined); or Tom Brady of the NFL and John Steinbeck of literary glory (rejected and denied time and again) only to sparkle in soaring overachievement when given the opening of a chance. I suggest the Minister take the time to appreciate the record of emigrant Guyanese, many unskilled, unlettered, and sometimes uncouth,who made it big when it counted by rising to the occasion.
Minister Henry has been given a huge chance in a huger place with among the hugest issues. She can show herself to be larger than all of this. She has to deliver. I think she can.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
