Compliance won’t build our future; a 21st century rethinking of Guyana’s education system

Jun 15, 2025 Features / Columnists, News

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By Karen Abrams, MBA, AA, Doctoral Candidate

Kaieteur News – In Guyana, our children are trained systematically to comply. From the moment they enter the classroom, they are conditioned to sit still, repeat what they’re told, fear mistakes, and obey without question. Corporal punishment, though officially discouraged, still casts a long shadow over our schools. Public shaming, reading out grades, mocking wrong answers, labeling students as “slow”, is normalized. The result?  Silence mistaken for discipline; conformity mistaken for intelligence.

This culture didn’t emerge by accident. It is rooted in what many consider the debatably outdated framework of B.F. Skinner’s behaviorism. Skinner’s radical behaviorism profoundly shaped psychology by asserting that all human behavior is driven by conditioning rather than free will. His theories revolutionized education, parenting, and behavioral therapy by promoting systems of positive reinforcement still widely used today.  In today’s classrooms, behaviorism shows up in the form of corporal punishment for mistakes, public reading of grades to shame or reward, gold stars for obedience, and a rigid system of compliance that values silence over curiosity.

But Skinner’s critics, including myself argue that his dismissal of internal thought processes and emotions reduces human beings to mechanistic actors, ignoring the complexity of consciousness, agency, and the richness of the human experience. His model, once effective for training compliant factory workers, military personnel, and office clerks, now falls short in a world that urgently requires innovation, adaptability, and independent thought. In an era shaped by technological disruption and global uncertainty, rigid conditioning undermines the development of the very qualities we now need most.

To be clear, across the world, some students are deliberately educated using more progressive models that prioritize inquiry, collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving. These learners are being prepared, intentionally, for roles as innovators, entrepreneurs, and future leaders in the global economy. At the same time, a second group of students manages to succeed despite rigid, compliance-driven systems. These are often the children of highly engaged parents or those fortunate enough to participate in afterschool or enrichment programs like STEMGuyana, which expose them to the skills and mindsets that traditional schools often suppress, critical thinking, confidence, leadership, and the capacity to innovate.

Both groups are rare. And the tragedy is that the majority, those trapped in outdated systems with no supplemental support, are being prepared for a world that no longer exists.

The tragedy of our current education model is that it prepares children for an industrial past, not the technological future they will inherit. Within the next five years, artificial intelligence will profoundly transform every major profession.

Doctors now use AI tools to detect diseases faster and more accurately than any human, everything from breast cancer to diabetic retinopathy. Medical students who rely solely on memorization will be outpaced by machines that can instantly synthesize libraries of knowledge.

Engineers are using AI to generate prototypes, run stress simulations, and design complex systems with precision no human could match alone. The engineers of the future must be creative systems thinkers, people who know how to ask the right questions, not just solve equations.

Accountants and financial analysts are already being replaced by AI software that processes transactions, detects fraud, files taxes, and offers real-time investment advice. What remains are roles that demand judgment, ethics, communication, and strategy.

Journalists are being challenged by AI that drafts news articles in seconds. Lawyers now compete with AI systems that draft contracts and analyze case law faster than any legal team. And teachers, yes, even we, must adapt, because our students have access to AI tutors available 24/7, personalized to their pace.

In short, any job based solely on knowledge recall, repetition, or rule-following will either be transformed, or eliminated by AI. The future belongs to those who can think critically, adapt quickly, collaborate deeply, and create boldly.

Yet in Guyana, our public and private schools still push students to memorize notes, recite definitions, and fear failure. We are producing task-followers in a world that desperately needs self-starters, critical thinkers, designers, researchers, entrepreneurs, people who can improve systems or products or invent what doesn’t yet exist.

The good news is that for the first time in our history, resources are available. Oil revenues are flowing. Donor funding is present. Private sector investment is growing and the government has stated a commitment to preparing learners for the new 21st century reality. It is my view that without a bold shift in how we educate our citizens, this wealth will not build a sustainable future for all. It will deepen dependency, widen inequality, and leave another generation behind.

To be sure, the non-oil economy, agriculture, tourism, technology, renewable energy, education, and the arts, can only grow if we develop the human infrastructure to drive it forward. That means cultivating minds in every region that are curious, critical, and courageous, not minds trained to wait for permission.

Around the world, and even here in Guyana, we’re seeing what happens when students are given voice, agency, and purpose. In North Dakota, studio-based classrooms let students design real-world projects while still meeting academic standards. Students, previously disengaged, rediscovered their love of learning.

Here at home, STEMGuyana’s learning pods, robotics clubs, and international performance show us what is possible. When students are challenged, supported, and inspired, they shine. These are the kinds of experiences we must scale across our entire education system.

Redesigning education doesn’t mean abandoning structure, it means rethinking purpose. It means training teachers to guide, not control. It means ending the culture of shame and fear that suffocates creativity. It means reimagining our classrooms as launchpads for innovation, not factories for obedience.

Let us work together to raise a generation of Guyanese who are more human than the machines, more empathetic, more resilient, more original.  That begins with letting go of the past.  Let’s stop preparing our children for a world that no longer exists. Let’s prepare them to shape the one that’s coming.

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• AI tools, B.F. Skinner’, compliance, Guyana’s education system, Karen Abrams, STEMGuyana

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