Dear Editor,
One is not certain how old is Swami Aksharananda, or how much research he has done on the history of education in British Guiana, and in Guyana. For educated as he (and his forbears) would be, it is disappointing that he should admit to seeing education through the prism of ethnicity, substantively by passing the 26 million Muslim population in India.
In the first instance it has to be reminded that, as in the case of other professions, one chooses to be a teacher (or to be religious) unfortunately the most underpaid of jobs in the whole range of public services. So that the employer Ministry of Education has but little choice, competed as it is by private schools from nursery to tertiary levels who, except for those founded by religious organisations, are not known to espouse the latter’s dispositions. One wonders where in this alleged ethnic congestion the correspondent would place the Cyril Potter College of Education to which persons voluntarily apply to be trained as teachers.
In a more substantive vein, one is depressed by the non-evidential attack on the morality of the administration of the University of Guyana. To put it humbly the critic should first engage UG direct about the strengths and weaknesses he has observed, rather than merely keeping a pejorative distance unbefitting of his (mis)informed values. With regard to the CARICOM Secretariat, its location in Georgetown was as a result of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham’s bargaining with his counterparts in the Caribbean, who had earlier experienced Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s rejection of the principle of integration on the grounds of the same ‘imbalance’ eschewed in the letter referenced herein. The correspondent interestingly does not appear to be concerned about the glaring ‘imbalance’ in the Guyana Defence Force.
Sincerely,
Elijay Bijay