Perhaps it’s time for unconventional education to shine

Photo: M. Abraham

Education has come a long way in Guyana contributing to national development. However, there is still some division between those who have the opportunity to study and those less fortunate children who lack opportunities and support to pursue it for upward mobility. This system of education that produces some social inequality is promoted by conventional ideology for capital and market products. Guyanese Indigenous people and other poor rural population because of their geographic location, cultural and social differences have always been at a disadvantage in obtaining formal learning, despite governments’ efforts to deliver quality education to them.

In 2020 came COVID-19 and the Ministry of Education began closing schools to contain the spread of the virus. This activity interrupted the academic learning in the classrooms for all children in Guyana and these days all are at home.
For Indigenous children in the interior, a few lucky ones are receiving academic lessons work at home, while the rest are in the farms with their parents. The majority lack access to online learning provided by the Ministry of Education, although some try to listen to the radio if they have solar energy or batteries to power the device at home.

For parents, teachers, the Ministry of Education and modern society, it is crucial for children to receive academic education and perform well at the core subjects to obtain the benchmarks rated by the system; a pivotal achievement for the Ministry of Education to be on par with standard education of the world that capitalism promotes.

But let’s be real. The same education based on ‘meritocracy’ fails most of Indigenous and other poor children with its rigid and selective system centered on education of the head and intellect and limited space for critical analysis. Given this understanding, it is hoped that COVID-19 serves to revolutionize education. As the meritocracy system slows down during time of closure of schools, perhaps it’s time for unconventional education to shine.

Given that conventional education comes to “educate” indigenous people, it should also consider that they have a unique worldview of education.

With the closure of schools parents are teaching the children to plant and grow local food from the farms, apart from teaching them the local language and customs from the elders. Additionally our children are learning to live sustainably with the environment and the proper use of lands while learning the importance of the natural resources etc.

Furthermore, there is a lot of richness in popular knowledge to learn from in rural and indigenous communities in Guyana. Some examples are the local season for fishing and hunting. There are also concepts of mathematics and sciences these communities generate. The circular shapes of the cassava bread when baked can teach shapes and the carbohydrate and other nutritious values it contains. There are many more examples of popular education to teach the children. This shows that conventional education is not the only way of schooling a child. Unconventional learning is also valuable and it should not be perceived as a second-class education. Having this aspect of education is vital for coping with disappointments when children academic performance is low at school. So while schools are closed and meritocracy learning slows down during this pandemic, it is time for unconventional education to shine for those students not having access to academic lesson at homes, until schools reopen in September.

Yours truly

Medino Abraham