Erica laments importation of bad behaviour

ERICA WILLIAMS-CONNELL, daughter of this country’s first Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams, has appealed to citizens to avoid the negative metropolitan practices that are being imported into Trinidad and Tobago. “In modern times, Trinidad and Tobago, adopts with alacrity the very worst of metropolitan mores. We have seen a disturbing trend towards violence in schools and the prevalence of street children,” she said.

Williams-Connell cited a 1999 report which stated only one in ten persons aged 17-24 was pursuing tertiary education. She said this should give us all “significant pause.” “Worse, in the National Literacy Survey of 1995, fully 20 percent of our adult population was either illiterate or at such a low level of functional literacy that they were able to answer only one of five questions, characteristic of contemporary Trinidad and Tobago.” “Up to 1986,” said Williams-Connell, “this country’s national literacy rate was among the highest in the Western Hemisphere.” She lamented that this was no longer the case.

She said foreign schools based in this country transported their entire curricula into Trinidad and Tobago, with a syllabus designed for and in a major metropolitan country. As a result, she said, these foreign schools had a virtually non-existent policy in terms of the social studies content of their programmes to ensure Trinidad and Tobago citizens know as much about their own Parliament and history. Williams-Connell questioned the discontinuation of initiatives to encourage adult education at the tertiary level. She said: “Between the period 1976-1986, almost 5,000 persons were awarded scholarships or full-pay study leave to pursue higher education initiatives, in addition to the fact that tertiary education at the University of the West Indies was also to be had, free of charge — this last being, regrettably and for decades now, no longer the case.”