Dear Editor,
The Ministry of Education, primarily through the Minister and senior officials within that Ministry, have been lamenting the decline in passes at English and Mathematics every year at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations. As we all know by now, these two subjects pave the way for further studies, employment and ultimately, careers.
The focus here is on English, proficiency of which should be expected as this is our native language, which we sometimes interlace with Creo-lese. Creolese was adopted since colonial days and passed on from African slaves of different tribes who developed a simplified form of English to communicate with each other, their European settlers and indigenous peoples and others of Indian descent. However, with independence and moreso with our oil bonanza, we have assumed the international stage and to convey our ideas and feelings, we now need to express ourselves in Standard English or the Queen’s English, which unavoidably is the legacy of our colonial rulers. All English speaking countries aspire to use this language in its purest form.
The problem with us is that many of our teachers from the late 1970s and early 1980s have been incapable of imparting sufficient knowledge of the language due to not having a command of it. I am not painting all teachers with the same brush. The incompetency is most likely prevalent in our public schools. This is not said in a supercilious manner or to denigrate teachers. I have the utmost admiration for anyone who assumes this noble and vital profession.
It is evident that a great part of our population born after 1970 or thereabouts who attended both primary and secondary schools are unaware of what constitutes proper English Language. Their syntax is faulty and this would lead to condemnation and bewilderment in high level and even common fora. It could even affect the semantics of what they are trying to convey. Plural and singular are inappropriately used, along with pronouns (“I” used instead of “me” etc.) Hence, it begs for remedial courses being offered to adults and children.
The fault lies not only with teachers. Many adults who our children and youth look up to and try to emulate, are failing to use proper English. Leaders within our society regrettably fall into this group. We need to not only look at teachers who teach English but all teachers who teach other subjects must be proficient in the use of the English Language. Decades ago, pre-independence, our teachers were well qualified and had attended Oxford and leading Universities abroad, many leaving there with post graduate degrees. Principals at Queens College, for example, were focused on recruiting the best. I imagine that a similar system prevailed at the other prestigious schools of Bishop’s and Saints.
The decline in that calibre of teachers could justifiably be attributed to Guyana’s inability to recruit and pay such outstanding teachers post – independence, with the challenges that a new state would have faced, our ventures into unwise economic policies, the oil crisis of the 1970s and international financial crises since. How-ever, we now have revenues from oil, which we expect to increase and last long enough for us to ensure that the present and future generations are adept in English. This is the only way we can see an improvement in our English examination results. Proficiency in English helps in the understanding of other subjects and the application of these subjects to the improvement of our daily lives.
Listening to the local news and other local programmes, it is often jarring to hear presenters mispronounce words and digress into Creolese while giving a presentation which is expected to conform to international standards. They are representing the national media which is followed internationally. Some of these words are elementary and expected to be a part of our vocabulary as educated and exposed adults. They should be regularly listening to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other renowned television stations along with reading good material and learning the pronunciation of words which they are unfamiliar with, within the material.
In Guyana’s glory days it was enriching to listen to broadcasters via our own radio stations of Radio Demerara and the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation. Announcers such as Vic Insanally, Pat Cameron, Hugh Cholomondeley, Carlton James, Ayube Hamid, Ron Sanders, Ron Robinson, Panchu Carew, Bruiser Thomas and B.L Crombie et al. Nowadays, it is much easier to obtain the pronunciation of words via Google. Hence, there is no excuse for mispronunciation. It is unsettling to see that almost every time someone is randomly interviewed on the television based on an event such as a murder or accident, that the interviewee displays the worst choice of words and intonation. I enjoy injecting Creolese into my conversation with my relatives, friends and sometimes my country folk.
Our former leaders, Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham were eloquent and outstanding orators who would sometimes masterfully inject Creolese into their speeches. The renowned American historian and politician Arthur Schlesinger, referred to Jagan as eloquent. Another outstanding orator and leader of Barba-dos, Mia Mottley digresses from Standard English into Creolese when she decides to and this makes her speeches more impactful and captivating. However, their grammar is always flawless. With the growth in our tourism industry and more foreigners coming to work due to our oil industry, it is imperative that we are easily understood through our use of Standard English.
Sincerely,
Conrad Barrow
