Dear Editor,
The Bishops’ High School (BHS) is filled with some of the best young minds in the nation. To have their talents used for vocational education, while the Government Technical Institute (GTI) and St George’s School are focused on specialized and challenging educational programmes appears to be the reversal of a firmly established education strategy. The education development strategy of our nation was established and implemented before our country’s independence. It has served us well and had aligned our nation’s education system with those of the top countries and leading global education institutions.
However, the Standard and Form system has since been abandoned in poor judgement and now the Ministry of Education (MoE) has shifted the focus and development of some of the best minds in the nation to areas of less need and less difficulty.
GTI should be leading the nation in vocational education, while the BHS should be striving for co-leadership with Queen’s College in the areas of science and technology. Isn’t this the purpose of the common entrance exams? Placing the best minds at the best institutions for our future engineers, doctors and lawyers was the original intent.
The country is in need of these essential first world skills. We cannot as a nation continue to depend on the gratitude of Cuba and other countries to fill these occupations, which are in short supply around the globe.
GTI and St George’s were better suited for vocational training and other fields of study.
The MoE must reconsider its current strategy. The BHS will excel at anything you give it to do. The talented minds at the second-best high school in the country are geared towards achievement. The teaching staff at the best institutions in the country use to also reflect these higher standards and higher levels of academic achievement.
We must place the best with the best. Politically appointed heads at top institutions will lead to the repeating of the mistakes of the past, and the students will find it difficult to respect a head teacher that cannot express himself or herself in proper English.
But I digress. It is better to shift what the BHS has accomplished in vocational education to the institutions that have been established for such a purpose. GTI comes to mind.
We must not turn those with the potential, desire and discipline to become doctors into carpenters when those who wish to be carpenters do not have the discipline to become doctors nor wish to put in the effort required.
Sincerely,
Mr. Jamil Changlee
Chairman
The Cooperative Republicans of
Guyana
