Dear Editor,
Reference is made to “Gov’t’s intent to transform education must address several fundamental questions” by Professor Muniram Budhu (May 15). I endorse this position. Educational system is the most important tool in the hands of a country. It is a tool for socio-economic change. Education shapes a person and a community. Education must be geared to provide opportunities to the new generation for development opportunities for their own as well as for the national purpose. As a sovereign nation, it is high time that we have our own independent education policy – a meaningful education. We need a new education policy geared towards promoting growth and development. Education must be inclusive and serve the interest of all – well-rounded in academia, culture, language, religion as it is has been in the US and India and elsewhere.
I suggest that our government take a look at India’s education policy. Ghana also has a good education policy. Guyana, like India and Ghana and so many other countries, inherited a system of education created by our colonial masters to serve their own imperial interests. India and Ghana established an educational system to serve their own development objectives – Nehru did not engage propaganda after assuming the reins of power. Nehru and succeeding leaders created IITs, IIMs, science institutes and medical schools, etc., to meet India’s development needs having been previously exploited for centuries by European and Moghul invaders. Indian university grads have been among the best educated and trained in the world so much so that westerners (plus Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand) have been recruiting graduates by the millions from India’s elite universities to man businesses, universities, firms, research institutes, and investment agencies. Students rejected from top Indian universities are gobbled up by American Ivy Leagues like Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton and other leading universities in the world with scholarships.
Like India, Guyana must have an education policy to train youths to meet our needs (hopefully they will not be lured abroad if paid well at home). Students must be inculcated with skills that encourage a sense of questioning and reasoning. We need skilled workers for factories, oil and gas, civil service and for our planned industrial phase of industrialization and professionals to manage our new economic ventures like gas to shore, hydro project, energy projects, hotels, tourism sector, agro-industries, forestry, etc. We need computer programmers, analysts, forensic experts, cyber security specialists, and several other experts for the current information technology era. We must vocational and other training that provide opportunities for jobs. Dr. Budhu also suggests that foreign languages be an option available to students. We do need a language policy. As we expand economically, with business people and diplomats coming from all over the globe, there will be a demand for translators. Students must be encouraged to learn foreign language, even making it mandatory in secondary school and university graduation. In the US, foreign language is mandatory in high school.
Dr. Budhu made reference to Sanskrit, among the oldest languages in the world. Hindi is more apt since Sanskrit is not widely spoken. Sanskrit is considered by scholars as the mother of many Indo-European and Asian languages and as a classical language does not attract much interests among current generation of students except for its relevance in the field of computer technology. Sanskrit was the language of schools in India; small numbers of people use it, preferring Hindi, English and their regional language. But the beauty of Sanskrit is it is semantically exact, according to Guyanese language scholar Dr. Satish Prakash, who taught languages and worked in computer field for over 30 years. Computer language must be unambiguous, with each symbol having only one meaning. That is how computers operate – language of principle of certainty. In most languages, many words carry multiple meanings. But in Sanskrit, a word or symbol has only one meaning. It is bound to its desired meaning – verb form, and 8th case ending, etc. There is no ambiguity in meaning. No other language has that feature. In computers, like mathematics, language must be precise. In that sense, Sanskrit is useful in computer and students can be encouraged to know its relevance if not the language itself. The important point is the country needs a foreign language policy with students having a choice.
To address our needs in education, we should set up independent institutes of higher learning. With rural people neglected in the establishment of tertiary institutes, new ones should be located in different regions rather than in the Georgetown metropolis. We should not confine everything to UG and its environs. We should establish more independent higher education entities – geared towards research and development and vocational training – and a language institute. These can be government managed or private, or in partnership between public and private sectors. Education policy must aim at providing education equally to all of diverse backgrounds – ethnicity, regional, and socio-economic status. The policy must prepare students for future citizens who will lead our development.
Sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram (PhD)
