Retired University of Guyana Engineering, Drawing and Design Lecturer, Andy Moore, who served for several years as one of the country’s more prominent Industrial Arts teachers has told Stabroek Business that given what would appear to be the trajectory of the country’s developmental focus, what he sees as a decline in the focus of Technical Drawing in the schools’ curriculum could come back to haunt us “in a big way” once we begin “what one imagines will be a major infrastructure development programme to go along with our wider ambitions as a nation.”
“It was an error to reduce the focus on Technical Drawing in the first place and what is important is that we restore the discipline to its rightful place with great haste. We are now in a situation where we need to take corrective action with great haste, In fact, many of the critical infrastructure requirements that will be required in an oil and gas economy will have to have their foundation in Technical Drawing-related skills,” Moore added.
And according to Moore, discourses on the development of the country’s education system “at the policy-making level” need to pay much closer attention to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes “by creating the infrastructure and facilities necessary to create an enabling environment for effective teaching and learning of TVET subjects particularly technical drawing as a key to technological breakthrough.”