You could say Andy Moore’s Festival City business is a testimonial of his technical know-how as he has built and designed much of what he uses, in addition to making space to teach what he has learnt over more than 50 years.
Moore was just a 17-year-old boy when he entered the teachers’ training centre to start his technical education and as he approaches his 72nd birthday the achievement he is most proud of is an entire coconut product factory that he built and designed. It is not so much about the money he receives from what he produces or the fact that nothing from the coconut goes to waste, what Moore is most proud of is the fact that the factory is testimony to his engineering skills.
During a tour of his business Moore spoke to Stabroek Weekend at length about his entry into the engineering world and the journey he has had so far. He also expressed sadness about where technical education is in Guyana; he believes that enough is not being done to ensure that students are exposed to quality education in that area.
But the blues turn to joy when he mentions the coconut factory, which comes under the Anidan business that includes woodwork and metalwork workshops.
“From the time a coconut drops off the tree I have built everything to use every part of the coconut,” he said, proudly.
He has built a machine which turns the outer part of the coconut into fibre and he plans to market this. The dust that accumulates underneath the fibre-making machine will be marketed as potting soil. Moore also makes coals from the coconut shell and he built a kiln to do this. He makes coconut jewelry with the shells as well. Moore also built and fabricated the sinks he uses at his business.
He has built and designed graters to grate the coconut and he packages the grated coconut and sells it. And as the coconut is grated, what is left back is used to make oil. “You don’t aim at making oil, but when you accumulate enough you make oil,” he explained.
Scraps from the coconut are used to feed chickens. These scraps include what is left back from making the coconut oil. He has found this very economical as he now sells chicken for $300 a pound. He has also built a plucking machine to assist him in this aspect of his business.
“From the time the coconut comes off the tree we can make fibre with it, we can make charcoal with it, we can make oil and everything. This is a macro-business, but I am saying that it all stems from technical education and there is nothing like the actual grated coconut fresh or frozen,” Moore said.
Because he grew up in Canje, Berbice, where there were lots of coconuts, it was always his intention to create a coconut business.
Initially he made small wooden articles and furniture when he first opened his business, but it has now evolved and includes an industrial aspect, as he builds incinerators around the country. He is currently building one at the new infectious diseases hospital at Liliendaal.
Since he acquired the property he opened an engineering workshop for design and building. He said a good fabricator always thinks about what he can build that he has not achieved and in his case it is a small hydroelectric plant, which he believes is easy to build. He also has not built a small ice factory. However he has built a windmill which works at his company.
Technical centre
Even as he works on his business Moore longs to see more done in advancing technical education in Guyana. To do his part, he has created a technical centre above his business and envisions it becoming a technical engineering centre where school-age children can be taught. Moore said he feels guilty about not having passed on a lot of the skills he has.
“I decided to build this school. I am qualified to do it. Nobody asked me. I know it has to be done…,” Moore said.
Everything necessary for the school, including all of the furniture was built in the company’s metalwork and woodwork shops. He has even made the tools to be used by the students and he designed and made a bag for those tools to be packed in.
“I do not want to criticize, but… the reality is that you must have trained teachers if you want to train people,” he said, before adding that it should not be a case of students having to wait until they go into teacher’s training college.
He is now engaging the Ministry of Education to ascertain how the school can be used. An official from the ministry has already visited the school and is expected to return with others. Moore is hoping an arrangement could be worked out for the building to be used by secondary school children, as it is already prepared for the theory part of technical teaching. His business below can be used for the practical aspect. Moore said there are a number of people, including some retirees, who are eager to be involved in the process and he sees himself as managing and designing the programme for the students in line with what the ministry proposes. He said the building can easily accommodate more than 16 children and he is looking at engaging the students in the Ruimveldt area.
“As you can see we are ready in terms of the laboratory space,” Moore said as he pointed to some of the furnishing in the building.
He envisioned the students being involved in projects and becoming competent in every section of a project.
“You can begin with one part of the project and by the time you reach like part five the student would have gained experience sequentially until that project is finished. And because we have metalwork and woodwork on the premises, all of our projects that I would want to deal with in this learning centre must be able to have a upward development as the project continues,” Moore explained.
He has also engaged those responsible for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and he hopes that they will visit the centre shortly.
Technical training
Moore’s training as a technical teacher started just one month after his 17th birthday. He later learnt that it was felt that he should not have been accepted until the following year, but because there was a scarcity in applications that year, he gained a spot.
The training was for three years and he topped his class because although his technical education was formalised in college, he had already had years of practical training from his father and uncles in Berbice.
“So I understood tools, equipment and measurement and so on, long before I came into the technical institute,” he said.
Following his graduation he went to the technical school where he was certified as a mechanical engineering technician. He then taught for five years at the Kingston Industrial Arts Centre and later at Dolphin Government School. Moore was then granted a scholarship for a technical degree in the United States at the University of Alabama. But when he got there he realized that he had already completed most of the work for a first degree. He continued his studies and almost simultaneously obtained a master’s degree in vocational education with a technical base. He also took the opportunity to complete two other technical courses and while for his first degree he specialized in welding and fabrication, for his second degree it was in auto engineering.
Over the years, Moore said, he expected that a lot of upgrades would have been done in technical education. His group was trained for the multilateral school system but for many reasons those schools did not function as they were originally designed. It had been envisioned that students attending those schools would have been exposed to all the different facets of education, including agriculture and technical education.
“The multilateral school system did not perform as expected and therefore the technical education system shifted backward and I think we are in a bind now where students are writing as much as ten subjects and none of them are technical subjects,” he noted.
Consequently, when Moore returned to Guyana after his overseas studies the classroom was not where he turned up for duty but instead he became employed with a mechanical company. He was still able to impart his knowledge for a time, as he was in charge of an apprenticeship programme. But it was soon realized that he was more qualified in automotive engineering and he was shifted over to that section. Later he worked with the Guyana Pharmaceutical Company for which he wrote the apprenticeship scheme and then the University of Guyana, where he lectured in engineering and drawing for a few years.
Moore is not satisfied with the progress of technical education in Guyana. He said the country does not have enough technical teachers, as an average of 12 teachers are trained a year when really about 20% to 30% of the teaching population should be technical. This would ensure that students are prepared for the labour market, a significant percentage of which is technical.
“It is easy to see that we don’t have the technical teachers. Take our major high schools… I am not aware that those schools have adequate technical subjects being offered and those subjects I put them in four groups; woods and construction, metalwork, electricity and electronics and engineering drawing,” he answered, when asked how he went about gauging the technical education in Guyana. He said that any adequate technical institution, be it an area vocational school or a high school, must satisfy those four areas.
Over the years, Moore moved into his own area of expertise for a number of reasons, including financial, and at one point he built his own equipment and went into the interior where he did mining. But after two attacks of malaria he heeded the advice of his doctor and did not return.
“I had a close call with malaria,” was how he put it.
Moore said he has always been teaching young people. He pointed to a teenager whose mother asked to have him at his business three days a week to keep him off the streets and meaningfully occupied.
He said he judged those exiting the technical institutions with the same yardstick he judged himself 50 years ago and he has observed that the standard that was set then is no longer there. He said this was the same all of the technical institutions including the University of Guyana. Moore noted that he has the prerogative and qualification to speak on the issue and also sees “what is coming to me”, referring to people he employs from time to time.
“If you don’t teach the subject in school for people to pass at CXC then you cannot have teachers to teach at CXC. You must start with the students,” Moore expounded.
Students, he said, are more exposed to the theoretical part of the subjects with hardly any practical teaching. He recalled that when he was at the University of Alabama, it was one student per machine and that was over 40 years ago. This still does not apply in Guyana today, even at the University of Guyana. He questioned how the country could have proper engineers and teachers in the absence of proper students.
“When I went to technical institute each teacher was college trained. It doesn’t happen now. People just come out of one class and gone to another class to teach,” he commented.
He pointed out that there is no questioning the need for technical education, what is lacking is the will to do it since it can be ten times as expensive as regular training. He stressed that the money should be spent, as he referred to the old saying, “if you think education is expensive try ignorance”.
Over the years at his business Moore has trained many and he contended that each high school should expose its students to some form of technical education. If not, then there must be technical educational centres up to CXC levels.
He pointed out that the Georgetown Technical Institute was built in 1953 and referred to it as an “old wooden building built between a road and a trench”. He called for a better developed technical institute.
“We need a proper technical institute of international standard in each region and we need to train the people to do that work. Now it is not difficult. People like me know how to train the people to do the work. It is not difficult for me to write a programme and despite the fact that most of the teachers are women, it makes no difference. Some of the best teachers I have worked with are women,” Moore said.
Moore can be contacted on telephone numbers 218-0663 and 619-0757. His grated coconut is sold for $400 and $600 per package depending on the size, coconut oil is $300 per bottle and he is in the negotiating process for the other byproducts of the coconut.
