- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 30/Jul 03:12

Our failed education system

RUDY PAUL UNTIL THE issues facing TT are addressed head-on, in a comprehensive and professional manner, the authorities, regardless of their colour-coded-politics, will continue "spinning top in mud." No amount of “more” of the same would address the numerous concerns. Be it more guns, more police officers, prison officers, overtime, more cars, more buses, more money, more state contracts, more box drains, more laws, more licensing officers on the roads, more fire trucks… Over the decades I have been arguing that the issues we experience in society are merely reflective of the end products of our failed institutions. Foremost among these institutions stands education. It is this dysfunctional, flawed, and failed system that is designed to provide future generations to take up their respective roles in society; as parents, as employees and professionals, as businesspeople, as citizens. It follows then that the overwhelming failure in the other institutions reflects the failed and failing education system. Of course, stakeholders in education, namely anyone affiliated with the education racket, would blame others, as they have been known to do. A common scapegoat over the years has been parents. Members of this institution need to be reminded that the parents who they blame are/were also victims of the system; just a generation earlier. Many members of the education system are parents themselves. My many concerns come as a retired sociologist. I would have observed the many changes in recent times, including the speeded-up version over the last two generations. One need not be a sociologist to acknowledge that changes are inevitable. But the rapidity of the changes outstripped the many institutions’ ability to stay abreast while remaining relevant. I am quite familiar with how institutional sub-cultures resist changes. The “band-aid solutions” applied to the daily challenges we face have evidently failed and will continue to fail. Band-aids are unable to prevent fatal diagnoses; such diagnoses require major surgeries. Shuffling prisoners from one facility to another does not “cut the head off the snake.” Sadly, none of the people at the helm of any of these institutions are professionals in their respective fields. Most got to where they are simply by bidding their time; most over the last 35 years, simply preparing for retirement. Be it in the teaching service, the police service, the prison service, etc. We end up with young people entering these respective institutions with new ideas, but frustrated. The older heads at the helm are the ones still making the decisions; decisions on how things were done two generations ago. Take the police as an example. A batch of recruits today meets training instructors who would have entered the service at least a generation ago; who would have been taught then by members of an earlier generation. After completion of training, as the recent recruits hit the ground running, they are told to “forget all that stuff they teach allyuh in there…” The world has changed significantly in recent years, with technology and technological advancements leading the way. Yet our educators remain bogged down in 19th century rote learning, preparing students for one exam after another. Students are then judged by how well they recall the information provided. Meanwhile, Siri, Alexia, Google et al provide more reliable information within seconds, making rote learning obsolete. The definition of intelligence today has been changed. Contrary to popular beliefs, “20 passes” don’t mean one is intelligent. It is simply an indication of one’s ability at recall. Problem-solving, critical thinking, etc are defining traits of intelligence today. Can anyone identify the last time anyone at the helm of the Education Ministry considered a complete restructuring of the system, of the curriculum? The abolition of the Concordat of 1960? Has anyone ever suggested abandoning the useless July-August vacation? Or is that sacrosanct to TTUTA and the many people who became teachers precisely because of said holiday period? How about abandoning the CXC/SEA exams which facilitate the “lessons hustle” where our children are stressed out? Has the ministry ever commissioned an enquiry to determine why children drop out of school? And if it ever did, was it ever made public? Or does the ministry just paint every student that ever dropped out with the same brush? A 2023 report by Seemungal and Leei indicated that between 2020 and 2022, a total of 2,814 children had dropped out of both primary and secondary schools, with primary schools responsible for 151 of those. Our tendency to ignore matters until they become serious threats can be equated to a commercial which once stated, “the African snail was last seen in Diego Martin…” With no follow-up. The post Our failed education system appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.