Are we getting quality education for the masses in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T)?

What is happening to my sweet T&T? Everyday I look at the news and I dread to see who had
become the latest statistic. Crime is spiralling out of control, political games are being played
between the Government and Opposition and we have been without an official Police
Commissioner for too long.

My issue however goes back to the education system. While I cannot ignore the importance of
many other factors including the drug trade, rate of incarceration or socialisation of family, peers
and social media, I believe that the education system has a significant contribution to the
escalating crime situation of the nation.

I am currently a part of the public education system of the country and it irks me to see what is
occurring at some schools. Although schooling is beneficial to some in T&T, the current archaic
system is in desperate need of reform as it is failing the vast populace of the country. I make
such a claim because at the moment, there are many students who are attending a secondary
school and they cannot spell, they struggle to read, they do not know the National Anthem or
Pledge and they generally view the system as a necessity they could do without. The notion that
one must go to school, study and sacrifice which was espoused to me as a child does not seem
as applicable to this younger generation. Instant gratification is the mantra of many youths
today and this is one of the reasons why so many are turning to drugs, gangs and even getting
pregnant at an earlier age. If many are seeing their friends and family “succeed” without
traditional schooling then what is the need for them to undergo all those years at an institution
that yields no results for them.

It is evident that our education system is in drastic need of reform and I don’t mean a renaming
of “Common Entrance” to “SEA” nor abolition of corporal punishment which is a whole other
story; I mean a total revamping of the system that focuses too much on standardised testing
and not other critical thinking and higher order skills that is so crucial to our society today. There
are so many brilliant students in our system but their brilliance is stifled as the main focus is
passing an exam. Their is an annual race for scholarships that many schools are completely left
out of because of the streaming that happens at the tender age of 11. And what does this
streaming do? It deems our children as failures as annually parents flock to the Ministry to get
their child out of government schools with the view that these schools would not provide their
children with ample opportunities.

Let me categorically state that I attended two government schools of which I am very proud but
each year I’ve witnessed that streaming and zoning are unofficially promoting a culture of
prestigious vs non-prestigious institutions which is being more deeply engrained into our ethos.
So what about the hundreds and thousands of students who do end up attending these
schools? What about the stigma and negative stereotype attached to them? Where is the
recognition for teachers who take students who got 30% in an exam at the end of primary
school and then achieve 50 or 60% at the end of secondary school? Is quality education only
measured by the number of scholarships received?

We are in dire need of educational reform and I will sit and wait patiently until one government
gets the testicular fortitude to initiate this task. Governments talk about diversification but one
must recognise that this too starts at the education system. I just hope that they do not wait
until irreparable damage is done before the move for true educational reform is made. As our
first Prime Minister asserted, the future of the nation is in our children’s schoolbags. What does
our future hold, T&T?