…in education
In the story of “the boy who cried wolf”, the little alarmist misused warnings about the “big bad wolf” to such an extent that when the “big bad wolf” did actually appear, the kid was left up the creek without the proverbial paddle! Not to mention, most likely his limbs. Some in the opposition are in danger of suffering from the same fate from their sensationalised and provocative cries about “apartheid” in education.
The swami who’s principal of the school over the river, Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) – the one that’s the first Guyanese private school to win a regional award from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) – picked up the issue in our letters pages. But we think he’s too kind. Maybe that comes with “swamihood” and all that.
First of all, to talk about “apartheid” in Guyana’s education system is to really make a mockery of the dehumanisation that the non-white populations of South Africa had to undergo under apartheid in that country.
Do David Granger and Dr David Hinds really believe that there are schools in this country that people of one race cannot enter? What kind of inflammatory nonsense is this? All of the premier schools in this country, for instance, are in Georgetown. How do they draw their student population? Through the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), thank you, which is open to every child in this country between the ages of 10 and 12. We have universal primary school education.
How can you have “apartheid” in a system that’s open to all and sundry? One argument can be that not all primary schools are equal. Kinda like the old “separate and equal” situation that existed in the U.S. before “Oliver Brown vs Board of Education” (a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional).
But the irony is that all the well-equipped primary schools – with facilities and trained teachers – are in Georgetown, which has the highest percentage of the constituents who Granger and Hinds are complaining of suffering fro “apartheid”.
These schools also come under the direct supervision of the highly-qualified staff of the Ministry of Education – unlike the rural schools that have the regional education department. When the complete results of any of the examinations are disaggregated – be it NGSA, Caribbean Secondary Education (CSEC) or Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE), the overwhelming number of highly successful students are from the Georgetown schools.
What’s gotten Granger and Hinds upset is the few high flyers who have recently emerged from the rural areas. These are merely the exceptions that prove the rule: to wit, that while there is no “apartheid” in Guyana, there is certainly severe impediments in the path of rural students in their drive for success in education.
…in employment
The seemingly endless saga of the MuckrakerKN’s hatchet man court case drags on. The one about Freddie Kissoon calling former President Bharrat Jagdeo an “ideological racist”. But things perked up a bit a couple of days ago. Seems Kissoon is now more concerned about being on the streets, pounding the pavement for a job, and all that.
Imagine this fella thinks he should still be teaching at the University of Guyana (UG). Yet he tried to convince the court he didn’t know UG’s retirement age was 60!! We aren’t sure if this is “contempt of court”…but Kissoon’s definitely contemptuous of the court.
We know he wrote on countless occasions about that “age of retirement” business. But maybe since he confessed by the time he was let go he was “over 60”, his memory’s giving out. His friend Mark Benschop did reveal he was “approaching 70”.
But surely the other confession couldn’t be a memory lapse. The one where he was forced to admit under cross that he collected and spent three months’ salary that he hadn’t worked for. But won’t admit that was in lieu of “notice” of termination. Maybe he thought UG was a house of charity?
…on Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
The opposition’s having some problems convincing the Western diplomats they couldn’t pass the amended Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) legislation. They can say the government hasn’t informed them now!