Education dilemma

THE EDITOR: Like most things in this country, the education system is in a sad shape and leaves a great deal to be desired. To begin with, the majority of schools are very poorly maintained and in dire need of urgent repair and some are not fit for habitation by teachers and students alike. Even the grounds and surrounding areas are overrun in bush and harbour a quantity of rats, snakes and other undesirable creatures that most certainly create a health and safety hazard.

Others have defective floors and sections of the ceilings falling away and posing a danger to teachers and students alike. As for toilet facilities, I would venture to say that in every school in TT the facilities are inadequate in number for the student population and in need of urgent repair. Some of the sewer systems are choked and backing up spilling water and human excreta on the floors on which students have to walk. There is also a serious water problem in some schools, many of which have had to be closed on frequent occasions and the children sent home because there was not a drop of water to drink, wash hands or flush the toilets. There are yet other schools that have broken fences and surrounding walls and yet others that still have no walls or fences to provide a minimum of security for teachers and students alike.  Those are some of the items of physical infrastructure that negatively affect the school system but there are many more problems as well.

In the same manner that not all students have the same capacity to learn and absorb everything that is taught to them in the classroom, not all teachers have the capacity to command the attention of all the students in the classroom and not all teachers have the ability to easily and positively impart to the students the knowledge that they may have gained in the course of their own studies in the teaching profession. Having worked in the aviation maintenance industry for over 26 years, I have had the occasion to participate in several aircraft training programmes in the UK, USA, South and Central America and other countries.

In most cases the instructors were of a high professional standard who not only knew their subject thoroughly and in minute detail, but had the ability to impart their knowledge of the subject with total ease and clarity. Teaching is by no means merely a form of employment for the sole purpose of making a livelihood, teaching is a rare calling for which one must possess a natural inclination and tendency to impart ones’ knowledge with ease and conviction while at the same time, arousing the undivided attention of the students in his or her class. Needless to say, a great deal of patience on the part of the teacher is of paramount importance and is in all probability, the foremost prerequisite that any teacher should be endowed with.

MARTIN KAVANAGH
La Romaine