The results have been doing the talking

Mar 25, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Peeping Tom…

Kaieteur News – Sometimes you wonder whether the President is operating in an alternative universe. The things that he is quoted as saying are at times so mind boggling that they defy credibility.

Take for example, what he was reported to have said at a recent event. The Guyana Chronicle of Saturday 23rd March 2024 quoted the President as follows: “Three years ago… I said that we will deliver first world, first-class education in this country. But that is not all that we said. We said that we will deliver first-class, first world education accessible to every citizen of this country.”

He was also quoted as saying that, “Today we can celebrate the accomplishment of this vision.” By that the President probably meant that the people of the country could go on line and access first world education courses.

But that can hardly be an achievement of the government. Because courses offered by online education platforms such as Coursera have long been available to students from Guyana, at a cost. If the government is saying that these programmes with certification are now free, then it can rank this as an achievement.

But making courses provided by first world educational institutions accessible to Guyanese is different from saying that Guyana is delivering first world and first-class education. Much less to say that, let the results do the talking.

For a long time now, the results have been doing the talking. Guyana still has an unsatisfactory rate of passes at the secondary school entrance examination (NGSA) and at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations. Perhaps the President needs to be reminded about the numbers.

At the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) more than 60% of the students failed to pass Mathematics. In English, more than three out of every ten students failed. It was a similar situation in Science and Social Studies with more than 4 out of every ten students failing.

What is not being told is just what percentage of students failed overall when the subject scores are combined. Just looking at the performance in individual subject areas, it is evident that more than half of our students would have likely failed to secure 50% of the total marks. Is this the evidence of the ‘delivery’ of a first-class education?

At CSEC in 2023, the overall pass rate was 65%. But this masks the fact as to just how many students are matriculating – having 5 or more passes including Mathematics and English.

The crisis in local education extends beyond examination results. Most of our students are not completing their secondary education. Only about 42% of a cohort is completing the final grade in primary-tops schools – a primary school with a secondary department up to Grade 9. In the general secondary schools, only half of the students of any given cohort will survive. This should have elicited a declaration of emergency in education.

According to the World Bank, while students in Guyana receive 12 years of schooling, because of the poor quality of the education, the learning is only equivalent to 6.7 years of education in top-performing education systems. In other words, we are graduating students with a sub-standard education relative to international standards.

The President must face reality. Offering citizens access to programmes offered by online education platforms such as COURSERA is not the same as delivering a first world or first-class education. Such offerings are remedial education and do precious little to correct the deficiencies in our school system.

The bottom line is that Guyana has a substandard education system, not a first world or first-class system. And the only reason why there is such a large market, relatively speaking, for programmes offered by online education platforms such as COURSERA is because of the failures of the formal education system.

The government should not delude itself into thinking that it brought COURSERA to Guyana. Any person, with access to the internet, including through a smart phone, could have for years now signed on to programmes offered by COURSERA. Perhaps, it is now either free or cheaper when done through the Guyana COURSERA platform.

No one wants to hit the government for its initiative in providing greater access to programmes offered online by international education institutions. But the fact remains is that this does very little to alter the reality that our education system is in a crisis.

Talking about first world and first-class education does not alter this fact. Only serious changes in the sector will bring about transformation.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)  

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• alternative universe, Guyana Chronicle, mind boggling, Peeping Tom

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