Part 2
TERTIARY education is pivotal for continued economic growth. It is critical to have a highly skilled workforce, and access to a solid post-secondary education is a prerequisite for building out this human resource. It is also believed that well-educated people are more employable and productive and critical for economic resilience and global competitiveness.
The societal demand to have the offering of tertiary education built out to facilitate economic growth and development was inevitable given the rapid expansion of the education sector. While one can argue that tertiary education has been built out at a high standard, its sustainability has come under review of late, given its capacity to meet national developmental needs and its cost. Thankfully, this misalignment is being addressed.
Unfortunately, with concerted efforts over the years on the satisfactory establishment of tertiary education, the needs of the primary and secondary schools suffered. Infrastructural and resource requirements have been neglected in the main. Ageing, dilapidated schools have now become a major hindrance to the delivery of basic curriculum.
The neglect of these schools has significantly compromised schools’ ability to meet their basic role. Health and safety issues are now prevalent, furniture shortage is now being normalised, and resources to facilitate curriculum delivery are becoming extinct.
Cultural transformation/Tobago centric curriculum
Curriculum reform has been a cry for quite a number of years. With the evolving global environment and rapid technological advances, the curriculum offerings must be aligned to current human development demands; not only in content, but more so in design or technique (delivery).
Schools have been seeking to enhance the quality of their programmes. This has been a struggle as the Ministry and Division of Education have not delivered the requisite resources nor funding for resources to sustain quality programmes.
Disappointingly, instead of addressing the current shortcomings of resource allocations, innovations are being thrown on the table to further strain the teachers who have been going over and beyond to keep the system afloat. Resources are not given to support the core curriculum nor these innovations, but instructions are being high-handedly passed on
carte blanche. One is left to question the thought processes or logic of the decision makers.
Teacher development
In many ways, teachers have been the most critical resource in our education system. This, though, is not reflected in the treatment meted out to teachers. They wait several years to get through all the bureaucracies to get their appointments and requisite remuneration packages regularised.
The well-being of our teachers has been neglected, leading to demotivation through frustration with a system that is mechanistic in form and function. Yet they are unjustly blamed for some of the poor performances of our schools. This is definitely not developmental nor encouraging for teachers to continue to g
