The Growing Gap in Education

The dismal showing of the inability of an important section of our adult population to spell and write, is disturbing, and has revealed an aspect of illiteracy, which we must seek to correct without delay, since reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic are among the basic requirements for livelihood. With the capture of Trinidad from Spain in 1797, the British Government decided that Trinidad was to be governed as a Crown Colony, and provided the primary schools with the same books used in England, to obtain proficiency in Reading, English Language and History. The British Government was of the view, that her subject peoples must be taught her language and the knowledge of her worldy might, through her history.

English was taught through The New English Books, a graduated course of English Composition in Five Books for Primary and Secondary Schools, also, The Childrens’ Cameos of Poetry and Prose were used. It was noted, that in order to learn to write with ease, precision and force, it was necessary to be able to read efficiently, in order to study the masters of the English tongue, since vocabulary, choice of phrase, ideas, device of metaphor and similie may be acquired by reading, and reading alone. In the late 19th century, the primary schools in Trinidad began teaching the grammatical structure of the English language. My mother was a student of the Arima Girls’ Government School and in 1889 was awarded a prize for Grammar.
In those days prizes were in the form of books, which were chosen and provided by the Government, as well as the printed form on which was to be written the name of the recipient.

Books were chosen from Herbert Strang’s Library, and among them were :- Alcotts Little Women, Good Wives, Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Dickens Barnaby Rudge, Eliot’s Silas Marner, Scott’s Ivanhoe, Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, Mrs Charles Bray Elements of Morality, written especially for home and school teaching. Each chapter began with a verse from a poem, which clarified the contents of the chapter. The young people of that era were interested in the current songs of the day and kept a song book. The friend who had the words of the latest song was asked to copy them in the song books of other friends. The art of writing was fully displayed in those books. The letters were beautifully formed, and the writing was in ink of various colours. In that era, students were taught how to hold a pen when writing.

In 1909 a College Council was formed to deal exclusively with affairs of the Colleges, so that the responsibility of the Board of Education, was confined to the administration of Primary Schools. Between 1910 and 1935 Trinidad and Tobago experienced what was virtually characterised as an Educational Renaissance. The most important happening, was the introduction of compulsory education, which came into force in 1935.
Reading, Arithmetic, Singing, Drill, Agriculture and Nature Study formed the compulsory syllabus of instruction. By way of stimulating the Head Teacher to consistent efforts to keep his school full, an award called an “Attendance Grant” of 12 cents per head, was paid to him quarterly, on every pupil in average attendance, provided that such average was in excess of fifty. A bonus not exceeding 96 cents per head, on every pupil in average attendance was paid to the Head Teacher on the results of an annual written examination.

As a consequence, every effort was made to ensure that children were sent to school and that every student was able to read, write and spell.The standard of teaching was so commendable that many students who reached the Seventh Standard at Primary School, were sent to relatives in the United States, where they worked, further educated themselves and in time qualified as professionals in various fields. In 1914 a Children’s Section was instituted in the Public Library, with a subscription of 12 cents per month. Juvenile readers could take two books at a time. In 1921 saw important changes. Modern methods in Infant Teaching were introduced, and facilities for the free education of the children of deceased civil servants was extended to teachers. In 1934 the training of teachers was conducted in an imposing building in Port-of-Spain, which was the nucleus of a Proposed Central Training Institute for the West Indies, and which assumed that aspect, having on its roll students from Antigua, Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada and British Honduras.

During those years reading occupied the leisure moments of many people, and they subscribed to a number of Book Clubs. It was the quality of primary education in the 30’s that enabled Aldwin Roberts who enjoyed the sobriquet Lord Kitchener, to compose adequate verses and vibrant music for his calypsoes, which adequately expressed the happenings involving women and the soldiers. With the construction of the USbases here in 1941 many housewives went out to work, and their children of school age especially some of the boys, chose to loiter rather than attend classes at school. The problem was of such a dimension, that the Department of Education instituted “Truant Officers” who would walk around and take the truant scholars to their schools. This was the genesis of one of today’s problems in education. It must also be remembered that people from the islands came legally and illegally to work on the base, and eventually brought their children, this caused a shortage of places in our primary school.
With a gap in the composition of the family unit, many children are deprived of parenting and the teachings of schools and religious denominations are eclipsed by destructive messages, frequently featured in today’s Hollywood films, and popular music.

However the absence of certain aspects of basic education, discipline and thrift, together with the desire for expensive material living caused many people to be worse off at the end of the oil boom. In 1984 Mr O Padmore, Minister of Education formally opened the programme on remedial reading at the Faculty of Education, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. The result of the dictation exercise for would-be Special Reserve Police Officers was a blessing in disguise. Any report which the government may have organised to get first hand knowledge; because of remarks concerning the problems of basic education, even at university level, could not have given such realistic results. It would be useful if government would collect names and addresses of those people who demonstrated the need for remedial reading programmes; classify them into districts, and provide adequate opportunities for them to attend remedial reading classes, to assist them in becoming employable. Promoting students according to age instead of merit is misleading, allowing our students taking the CXC examination to write partly in dialect instead of standard English, expose us to redicule from other islands.
Suzanne Mill’s column returns next week.