Dookeran:

GOVERNMENT MUST get rid of the voluminous amount of bureaucracy that affects the educational sector “and rest proper governance in the hands of the people.”

“The parents as well as the community must be engaged. A structure of power must be devised to bring about changes because the present system has not worked,” Winston Dookeran, the Political Leader of the UNC, said.

He was invited to deliver the feature address yesterday at the Preysal High School, where the Association for the Improvement of Education held its 2006 Educational Forum.

Jagdeo Maharaj, former principal of Chaguanas Junior Secondary, is the president of this Association.

Discussing School Boards, Dookeran said their mere appointment was not enough and in addition “there must be civic participation in a wider context in that community organisations must monitor operations if they are to function effectively.”

“That is one of the key ways to ensure good performance,” he added. Dookeran said that there must be a greater sense of accountability on the part of Government “as the population must get value for money spent.”

Dookeran felt that education must be focussed on the children in a more practical sense in that the “product of the school system must satisfy the demands and the challenges of the market place.”

He said that too much emphasis was being placed on the old Agenda “but we must have an eye for the future if not we will be spinning top in mud.”

Dookeran stressed: “We must develop a culture for knowledge and come to terms that children are more analytical now and we must create an environment that is more conducive to the development of an appropriate technological era.”

He spoke about Financial Literacy and felt that more people should be exposed to matters that involve the economy and recommended that this should form part of the curriculum in schools.

He was convinced that children were not growing up with proper values “and that was the main reason for the prevalence of antisocial behaviour in schools these days.”

Dookeran said that “when we gained Independence in 1962 we had a clear vision as to the journey we should travel to make it work, but now 40 years later we seem to have lost our way.”

President Jagdeo Maharaj addressed the gathering on “An Organised School” while Murtuza Baksh, retired schools supervisor and former member of the Teaching Service Commission, presented a paper on “Interviews for Promotion.”

Baksh, a resident of Preysal, was presented with an award for his contribution to education.