THE ISSUES surrounding the upsurge in crime around the region are not being addressed by the education system, says Virginia Poyote, the regional coordinator for Education International in the North America/Caribbean region.
Speaking at a Teachers Professional Day seminar at Solidarity House, Harmony Hall, St Michael, Poyote said the education system was yet to understand what had given rise to the various crimes, and find ways of reversing the situation.
“We have not understood what has given rise to that kind of crime and why our people have lost respect for life and each other; that greed and the selfishness that we have in society . . . but the educational system is the base for which we can address these values.
“We can help our children to move away from the academic base, to one of critical thinking and assessing things, coming up with creative ways of doing things and not operating like robots,” Poyote told the SATURDAY SUN.
The regional coordinator said the system currently placed a lot of emphasis on certification, but failed the human side of society.
“Examinations and examination results is it! But we are not looking at the social and human aspect, the softer skills that make people human and caring, loving and compassionate. We are losing that in our educational system,” she noted.
Poyote said there was also a need for continuous training which must be one of the key things to keep teachers at the top of their class when it comes to addressing some of the problems being faced today by teachers.
She emphasised the point that teachers had to continue to retrain and retool themselves and never become complacent in their jobs.
“You can win a battle today and tomorrow a bigger battle comes, so you cannot sit back and relax, you have to prepare yourselves for bigger things,” she stated.
She said there was always a need for “new minds and new blood coming in”.
The regional coordinator said, however, with the global economic crisis, one of the first areas that always suffered was education.
“What we anticipate is that with the global economic crisis, the first area to be cut off will be in education. We will see a reduction in teachers’ salaries, we will see poorer worker conditions, increased classes and the quality of education will be comprised, so they must be ready so that when governments say there is no money and they begin to cut, that there will be a strong teacher organisation of those who are very knowledgeable and know how to address that challenges” she said. (CT)
