Quite what to make of the reported recent remark (Stabroek News, Monday March 27) by the General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Coretta Mc Donald, that the recent incident at the Houston Secondary School during which a teacher had “armed herself with a cutlass” had been resolved, and that the parent of the offending child and the cutlass-wielding teacher have “sorted out their differences” is difficult to say.
One makes this point since the settling of the ‘differences’ between the parent and the teacher (never mind the fact that this, in itself is a comforting thing) does not go anywhere near to the heart of the utterly disgraceful incident at the Houston Secondary School when set in the wider context of home-school relations. If, therefore, we can hardly be unhappy over the revelation that the teacher and the parent are, apparently, holding no grudges, one doubts that Ms. McDonald would agree that their hugging and making up gesture goes anywhere near to the ‘meat’ of the matter.
That said it is still important that we note what appears to have been Ms. McDonald’s mediatory skills, particularly since this might well open the door to a much closer relationship between the Ministry of Education and the GTU in the matter of resolving some of the challenges confronting the education system some of which, including the issue of school/home relations have grown to quite alarming proportions. Indeed, we seriously doubt that what Ms. McDonald had to say is intended to send a message to the effect that we are close to effectively addressing the matter of home/school relations. One makes this point against the backdrop of what is now the incontestable evidence that, acting alone, the Ministry of Education has failed to effectively address these issues,
Contextually, we can hardly help but concede that insofar as the wider challenges of significantly enhancing relations between school and community are concerned, mending fences between the teacher and the parent in the instance of the Houston Secondary incident ought not to be taken out of context. The last thing we need is to create the impression that all is now forgiven and forgotten and that we can put the Houston Secondary incident behind us and move on. The occurrence helps to underscore the far deeper implications of relations between home and school and school and wider community and therefore cannot simply be put to rest without addressing that matter in its much wider context. This indeed is the challenge confronting a Ministry of Education which, over time, has failed to deliver sufficiently in this area.
Here, the Ministry of Education can, in the circumstances, do far worse than engage the GTU General Secretary (a retired teacher with considerable experience) and who may bring new and enlightening perspectives to the search for solutions.
No one is suggesting that Ms. McDonald’s observation, in any way, seeks to make light of a deeply disturbing occurrence in a society where undesirable propensities (like home/school confrontations) are apparently being mimicked with regularity across parts of the country. Indeed, her “resolved differences” suggests that, over time, she remained close to the situation without determining conclusively that the teacher associated with the cutlass incident is now altogether regretful of her actions and that the ‘connections’ of the out-of-control schoolboy understand that school invasions cannot become the standard response to in-school situations.
That said, we can hardly, at this juncture, simply draw a line under the Houston incident and move on. Nor do we have any reason to believe that the teacher involved in the cutlass incident may not now be thoroughly regretful of her actions, though, here again, she cannot simply be given a pass without us at least noting the occurrence ‘with concern.’ The option that she chose is not just a microcosm of a much wider (and seemingly continually escalating) problem related to dysfunctional home/school relations but, perhaps, an indication of a wider unwholesome pushback from teachers against what, in some instances, are the hazardous circumstances under which they must give service, a sentiment which the cutlass-wielding teacher sought to express in her reported description of the circumstance as “the new COVID.”
Here, and not for the first time, it has to be said that there continues to be little evidence of any effective intervention on the part of the Ministry of Education in response to a circumstance which, in some instances, is having a decidedly destabilizing effect on education delivery. Truth be told we can no longer blind our eyes to the reality that out-of-control children and frequently uproarious parents and other ‘connections’ now rank among the more serious challenges to effective education delivery.
Here, it is apposite to wonder whether the proportions of the Houston Secondary incident may not be sufficiently poignant as to cause the Ministry of Education – which has, up until now, made no clearly discernable decisive interventions to rein in the problem – to ‘shift gears.’
Surely, the sheer lawlessness of the Houston Secondary School incident and the ugly stain that it leaves on our education system – the whole nine yards of which were shockingly ‘served up’ on social media – ought to persuade the Minister of Education, that such ‘interventions’ as the Ministry has made have had the effect of butter ‘gainst the sun’ and that it is down to the Minister and her team to cut the chat and begin to move in the direction of corrective action.
