I wish to congratulate our Minister of Education, the Hon Anthony Garcia, and by extension the Government, for the Consultation on Education and for the timely convening of all stakeholders concerned about the status of education in our country at present. I regret that I cannot attend any of the venues due to health issues, but I would like to add my two-cents nevertheless.
As someone involved in education for almost all my life, being mentor/teacher of siblings, pupils, offspring, students, colleagues, you name it, I am deeply concerned about the high level of indiscipline that obtains in our schools today, particularly at the primary level. That is not to say that what happens at the secondary schools does not bother me. It does tremendously as well.
Many are the factors attributed to its escalation in the classroom itself, but is it possible that because there is inadequate supervision, opportunities arise for pupils/students to misbehave? All teachers know that once a teacher steps out of the classroom for a few minutes, someone in the class is sure to take advantage of his/her absence to get into mischief. Which brings me to the following point.
It is my understanding that several vacancies exist in schools across the country, but my contention targets specifically the situation that exists in Roman Catholic schools. Prospective appointees have been interviewed and recommended by relevant personnel at the Catholic Board to the Ministry of Education, and they now have to be referred by the Human Resource Department of the Ministry of Education to be interviewed by the Teaching Service Commission before being appointed. How often the Commission meets is anyone's guess. I suppose this situation might occur with other school boards as well. So while "Nero fiddles, Rome continues to burn," so to speak. In many cases, teachers are required to control another class besides the one to which they are assigned, yet they must cover all the work they are supposed to cover with their own class.
May I humbly suggest that once teacher applicants are recommended by their respective boards, they should take up their appointments immediately (as was done when I began my vocation). The Human Resource Management Department could then schedule their own interviews at appointed times thereafter. I am certain that the various denominational board members are more than adequately qualified and experienced to select suitable applicants to teach holistically in their schools.
As one calypsonian put it, too many little children are left alone, unsupervised, untaught, left to their own devices, with no one to point them in the right direction. It is my fervent hope that the Minister of Education would graciously use his kind office to move expeditiously to rectify this very serious anomaly in our education system.
Eva David-Swain
Sangre Grande