Even if it were for the purposes of debate, none would deny that an education prepares children for adult life, while equipping them with the skills and knowledge necessary to constructively participate in nation building. In fact, a sound education, providing foundation in academics and life skills, should instil in children an eternal love of learning, as much as a sense of community.
Where at its endpoint, an education plays an invaluable role in children developing the critical thinking skills and knowledge required to be productive members of society. Having said that, an education shouldn’t serve as a discriminatory tool, perpetuating and reinforcing class structure and inequality. For an education, whether academic or vocational, should serve as the underpinning agency for social mobility, even as it promotes a sense of identity, belonging, and respect.
Thus, it’s in this context, our education sector, counting four depressing years, is brought under the scrutinising microscope to better understand the shocking failings. For it cannot be denied that this sector, of catastrophic leadership under the installed Education Minister Priya Manickchand, is buckling at its knees. In fact, such failings are evident with our children, 50% to be exact, who are dropping out from the education system, with no avenue of return.
But these failings extend beyond school dropouts, as less than 40% of our children are gaining passes in five subjects, maths and english included, at the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate. And the culmination of these perennial failures is, 10,000 children, predominantly the socioeconomic deprived, are leaving the education system annually, without any substantive qualification, with matriculation at a paltry 26%.
That said, such disastrous failures aren’t limited to the secondary schools, as our primary schools, the foundation of education, are manifesting similar depressing statistics. And these depressing statistics evidence that only 66.8% of our children, in an english speaking society, are gaining passes in english at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA). Moreover, of the perpetually challenging subject of mathematics, only a paltry 40.4% are gaining passes at the very NGSA.
Furthermore, as it pertains to our Indigenous children, the statistics are much more depressing, with only 37% gaining passes in english while an excruciating 18% mustering passes in mathematics. In fact, of concern to all, more so this cluelessly installed government, is that the failures, both primary and secondary, are disproportionately in the socioeconomic deprived groups.
And confronted with such concerning statistics, of our children catastrophically failing at both the primary and secondary levels, one would’ve expected significant soul-searching if not brainstorming, in the installed government. Where from this brainstorming, one would’ve anticipated the installed government undertaking a root and branch analysis, to better understand the genesis and possible remedies, for these failures. However, that’s not the case, hence anecdotal evidence we are obligated to scrutinise, revealing that the education sector is in dire straits, with our teachers leaving for greener work friendlier pastures.
So, confronted with the painful reality that our children are catastrophically failing because our teachers are leaving for greener pastures, the rational expectation is, the installed government would’ve taken steps to reverse this trend. And recognising the underpinning reasons for this exodus, anecdotal as they may be, is remuneration and working conditions, one would’ve anticipated policies to address same. But rather than addressing the underpinning reasons for our children’s failures, the installed government remain tunnel vision on infrastructure development for their cronies.
In fact, having appropriated and expended tens of billions in infrastructure development for 2024, the installed government has allocated further tens of billions for 2025, even as our children continue to fail. Therefore, the consequences are wholly predictable, our socioeconomic deprived children are being denied social mobility through education, even as our undervalued teachers are resigning en masse. Thus, the conclusion is, education which should be an agency for social mobility, is under this installed government, a discriminatory tool, perpetuating and reinforcing class structure and inequality.
