Revolution in tertiary education needed

THE EDITOR: On Monday November 24, 2003 the Newsday printed a paper that was presented by Lloyd Best at Tapia House, Tunapuna. In the paper, Best articulated his views on the restructuring of tertiary education in this country.

Lloyd Best is correct when he says that tertiary education in Trinidad and Tobago has failed. In his typically, irreverent style, he referred to UWI as a “wasteland.” This is indeed a fair assessment of UWI which is the biggest provider of tertiary education in the region. It is simply a relic of the old British elitist education system. This system was meant to provide education for a privileged few, while abandoning the majority. Only a few made it to the tertiary level. Today, less than ten percent of our citizens access tertiary education. Yet the few who have entered UWI and have graduated seem ill-equipped to function in the real world, lacking innovation and problem solving skills. As Best pointed out in his paper, “employers complain of ill-adapted graduates.” Lloyd Best, following the footsteps of Lenin, has asked the question, “What is to be done?” He first acknowledged that our crisis is cultural and deep-seated. Instead of producing our own solutions, we slavishly imitate foreign models that are usually inappropriate.

Best correctly noted that “we are inundated by the systematically miseducated from the leading foreign institutions.” This lack of indigenous creativity exists not only in the field of education but also in our political and economic spheres. A transformation of the tertiary education system would obviously create people with problem solving skills that would enable them to tackle the seemingly insurmountable problems that exist in our society. Unfortunately no one seems to have the answers. Best may be seen as being arrogant in stating that there is not one single political scientist who can describe the way our system of government works without using foreign theoretical approach. He is right. Many of our so-called intellectuals are myopic and still keep on espousing the same old formulas that have failed over the last four decades of independence. What is needed is an ideology which will guide the actions of our people in meeting the challenges in all spheres of our lives, including the education system. There must be a revolution. A revolution that would help us to develop a new consciousness that would lead to drastic change. In his paper Best noted that he was not “... advocating any apocalypse by way of starting afresh.” We must start afresh, or else the future will be apocalyptic.

RAPHAEL  JOHN  LALL
Erin