On Monday last, the Ministry of Education was forced to issue an apology for what it deemed “inappropriate content” on the Guyana Learning Channel. In the distasteful video, narrated by a man who appeared to be non-local, the lewd word f&%* was repeated some eight times and was in the title written at the bottom. The video was widely shared on social media and caused some amount of consternation.
One parent, writing on the Guyana Learning Channel Trust Facebook page, said the video appeared in the time slot for Grade 6 Grammar where the topic was “English Abbreviations”. Clearly, this video covered the internet slang abbreviations that tend to appear in text messages. It was totally inappropriate for the children aged 10 and 11 and perhaps younger who were the target audience on Monday between 2 pm and 3 pm.
The ministry said in its press release that systems were “immediately put in place” to ensure that this never happens again. But how could it have been allowed to happen in the first place? Well, a “thorough investigation” is being conducted, the ministry said.
Launched on April 1, 2011 as the Educational Television Broadcasting Service with Dr Seeta Shah Roath at its helm, the multimedia unit based at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) cost just under US$1 million to set up, the press was told at the time. It was originally aimed at narrowing the gap in providing quality education across the country. In a subsequent interview, Dr Shah Roath had told this newspaper that the intention was “to provide instructional material” and help “teachers …integrate the material into their lesson planning… to be creative…”
The objective was to eventually have the channel reach children and students all across the country with quality content targeted to preschoolers and kindergarteners; students of primary, secondary, tertiary, technical and vocational institutions; teachers and even early school leavers of all age groups in different time slots. In addition, the idea was that it would move towards the usage of Guyanese and Caribbean educational content, providing local and regional creators with an outlet for their product. This has so far not really materialised. To date, parents are still complaining about poor quality videos and narrators with Indian accents that are difficult for their children to understand.
At present the channel offers timetabled lessons between 8 am and 6 pm Monday to Friday; this is in response to forced COVID-19 school closures. Its previous programme schedule was less structured and relied heavily on foreign content. Back in 2017, a viewer complained in a letter to this newspaper that a Mathematics programme on the channel presented a lesson which included nickels and dimes and imperial measurements.
While the Learning Channel has offered local content, it was not what was envisaged when it was first launched. For example, in June 2016 a new programming schedule was introduced, which comprised what was referred to as “development support communication”. This included then president David Granger’s weekly public interest programme and content from the Government Information Service on issues of national interest deemed apolitical and non-commercial. These programmes were allotted on average 12 hours each week.
Meanwhile, old American cartoons that perhaps should have been set aside after the first few years still appeared to be the go-to for filling airtime. There never appeared to be any funding set aside for local content. Furthermore, there have been missed opportunities over the years for collaboration with local theatre production companies that have staged plays relevant to the CXC syllabus. Surely these could have been taped and televised to benefit those students who would not have had the opportunity to see them live. Plays from the National Drama Festival could also have been taped and aired for wider viewership as well as those put on by schools.
Perhaps the Guyana Learning Channel was not well funded over the years to allow for its growth, but it is possible that its stagnation also stemmed from some amount of apathy. This would surely explain how a curse-filled video aimed at adults ended up being aired far below the watershed period on a Monday afternoon. The fact that it continued to play and was not halted after the first few seconds is intolerable. It is inexcusable that there appeared to be no oversight. Obviously, no one previewed that particular video and if that were not bad enough, no one was monitoring it as it aired.
Whatever the Ministry of Education’s “thorough investigation” uncovers there is no escaping those facts. One hopes the systems put in place to prevent a recurrence goes beyond mere wrist tapping. The education system is already fraught with inadequacies and inequity and has been walloped by the COVID-19 school closures. The children depending on the Learning Channel for their daily lessons do not deserve to be thus traumatised.
