Teachers to blame for illiteracy problem

THE EDITOR: When students cannot read, we have to ask what their teachers were doing. We came from an illiterate African and Indian population, where in many cases the child had a single parent. Colonial masters did not encourage marriage either among slaves or indentures. As teachers we taught children whose parents were illiterate, and so could not help them with homework, except to see that they did it. Those children learned to read. Now we are being told that lots of young people in TT are illiterate. When the president of the University of Tokyo was asked on the BBC some three years ago about the high level of Math competence among Japanese students, and what the west could do to catch up, his response was, “If your children do not excel at Math, check the level of knowledge and competence of your Math teachers.”

The same applies to children who cannot read. Regardless of implications of race or economics, children who cannot read have not been taught reading. They may be dyslexic, they may be partially blind or deaf, but these are small side issues. Do teachers read? Do they read to the children? Do the children see their teachers reading? Children cannot be taught by people who walk away from their classes to drive taxis. Why can we not see what is so plain? Somebody was supposed to teach them, that person or persons drew a paycheck, but did not teach them to read. Some principal allegedly supervised the teachers who did not teach reading, some teachers and guidance counsellors passed them on to higher classes. If the child was capable of teaching himself, he would neither need teachers, nor principals nor guidance counsellors. Criticising Cudjoe based on sound bites, does not deflect the responsibility. A crime was committed against a whole generation of children. If there are more Afro-Trinis in that group than anyone else, it cannot be because their ancestors were the designers of the pyramids in Egypt, Sudan and Mexico. It’s because somebody did not each the descendants of the pyramid builders.

LINDA EDWARDS
Port-of-Spain