Lesson in spelling

THE MISERABLE performance of applicants taking the examination for entry into the Special Reserve Police (SRP) Service is deeply depressing. The sad results of this dictation test reveal not only the disturbing level of illteracy that exists among the ordinary citizens of our country but also the extent of the failure of our education system. We have known for a long time that our country is hampered by a literacy problem, but we had no idea that it was as grave as what this exam for would-be SRPs has disclosed. Indeed, it now seems that TT is burdened by a crisis of illiteracy and that a vigorous campaign with remedial programmes is urgently needed to address it.

The idea that a large percentage of our population cannot spell words in ordinary usage is not a situation we can be complacent about, at least not in the face of the challenge presented by the sweeping technological and economic changes now taking place in the world. It tells us that a large proportion of our people, perhaps a majority, are really not intellectually or educationally equipped to support the effort our country must make to prosper, to progress, perhaps even to survive, in the demanding and brutal business of the modern world. It is distressing to learn that of the almost 13,000 persons who wrote this SRP test, the vast majority were unable to spell such common words as "penalties,” "chaos" and "society." Inspite of the fact that each applicant was allowed to make ten mistakes, the failure rate was nothing less than shocking. According to Head of the North Eastern Division, acting Senior Supt Waldron Bishop, the dictation test was a passage which dealt with the functions of the Government and some of the biggest words were "fundamental" and "confusion" while the simplest were "and,” "one" and "for.” Commenting on the results he said: "They just can't spell and the passage was not read too fast."

What Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police (South) Dennis Graham revealed to us about one candidate's performance would be laughable if it were not so tragic. He said of the 138 words in the dictation exercise, the would-be SRP could only spell one — "robbery" — correctly. Mr Graham noted that almost 4,000 applicants wrote the exam in the Southern Division but only 615 passed the test. In the South Western Division, 343 passed while 529 failed. The Port-of-Spain, Western, North Eastern and Northern Divisions recorded 50 percent failures while in the Eastern Division 55 percent could not pass the simple test. The results were the same in Tobago, according to Supt Benjamin Watson, with a failure rate of 54.9 percent.

In our view, this exam and what it shows must be regarded as a wake-up call for our country, particularly for our young people. If the majority of 13,000 persons, given an allowance of ten mistakes, cannot pass a simple dictation test, then what does that say about the effectiveness of our education system? These applicants, wanting to become SRPs, are the products of several years of schooling, but it has left them unable to spell a number of words in every day use. They would like to respond to the government's call for placing 1,000 policemen on the streets of the country, but their inability to write simple and proper English means that they are incapble of writing the kind of reports that are necessary for the job. It is sad to note that after "benefiting" from TT's education system, their literacy level still cannot meet the simple requirements of the job they are applying for. We hope the lesson contained in this dismal situation penetrates into the skull of our young people.