Clearing The Air Part II

Submitted by Looking Glass

Are we in a permanent state of denial, some too intelligent to understand the written word, or to engage in objective analysis? Some of the comments in the BU and BFP are a reminder that 98% literacy means only that we can read and write. Nothing more. The word hand-out was used simply to drive home the point that preference was necessary for our survival, progress and development. A hand-out remains a hand-out despite the language used to describe it.

I am not demeaning agriculture. Cane-cutting is hard, laborious work which few today are willing to do. Many of the persons alluded to are the products of agricultural workers. They attended high school in an age when education was not free except for bursary winners. Many had to do household chores at home or in the field before and after school and study by the “Slut Lamp” or the street light. Had it not been for the preference sugar enjoyed many of children of these hard-working people would not have been able to send their kids to college.

Our value system stressed not success per se but education as the means of success. Recall the calypso little children go to school and learn or else later on in life you’ll catch real hell…no room in the world for uneducated boy or girl to earn tomorrow you got to learn today…Our value system reinforced getting head which meant get a school certificate and head for the Civil Service, and getting by which meant learning a trade. In a culture which prized white collar employment, the tradesman however good or better off than the white collar worker was deemed socially inferior. And no, I’m not suggesting that bright people should not enter the Civil Service. We had few options. It gave us status and socially separated the sheep from the goats.

The supply of educated labour in pre-1960 Barbados far outstripped the demand. The economy was not and could not have been rationalised to accommodate the supply of white collar labour. Except for the lucky few protracted unemployment was part of the post high school experience. Two non-economic factors did little to alleviate the situation.

Recall the mass migration of the 1950s and early 1960s? The persons I alluded to, others and some from the Civil Service migrated to find employment, further their studies and improve themselves which was not possible in Barbados at the time. Many worked on trains, busses, and factories while attending school. They do not live and work in Barbados and are under no obligation to sustain you by paying any form of taxes there. Their remittances helped to sustain you. Without remittances and mass migration many of you would have been aborted at conception.

I have spoken to many of my friends who returned and departed, or looked at the place with a view of returning and decided against doing so. The reason had little to do with the fact that they want too much money as we are told. Or because they have two degrees and think they know everything as often cited. Among other things cited were the politics and the overall socio-cultural ambience (to use a nice word). One person, one of three West Indians with a doctorate in the discipline–and the only Bajan—turned down lucrative offers and returned home to work. He left when they wanted to give the big job to a white Canadian. Today that person works for a one of the world’s largest corporations directing research, traveling the world and pulling in mega bucks. And yes, he had invested more money there than many of you would earn in two lifetimes.

Another took a Bajan enterprise from nothing and turned it into a top producer, then was relieved by the government of the day to make way for a future member of the clan. Today the enterprise can only manage about 60% of what had been generated at the time of his departure. The current administration is well aware of the person’s availability and credentials. His suggestions have been used by a Minister at a conference and elsewhere. But no job offer. Meanwhile the industry involved continues decline. The above suggests that too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing there.

Some of the white duncy Bajans who attended Harrison College created jobs for you. Without them you would probably be begging alms. Some won Barbados Scholarships and became successful businessmen, and reached heights beyond the dreams of those who decry the school. Have a look at the names on the Plinth (I think it’s the name of the statute) on the right side of the small ground. Also remember Codrington College?

Mixed secondary schools thanks to Dipper Barrow are a post 1960 phenomenon. The Modern and Green Lynch Schools were the only mixed schools for blacks. Secondary schools existed at a time when you wrote a number of subjects for the General Certificate in Education (GCE) including Maths, Science and Languages. For “A” level preparation Combermerians transferred to Harrison College and or took private tuition. The Barbados Scholarship exams spread over three weeks consisted I think 14 subjects. (“O” and “A” levels certificates per subject were unknown.) The pass mark was 82% per subject. Only eleven errors/mistakes were permitted. The late Grantley Adams, the 1928 Barbados scholar, did Russian and Latin. He defeated the late C B “Boogle” William’s father by a single point for the scholarship. This was in the days when there was a single scholarship and education was not free. And the papers were set and examined in England not Barbados. Which of you who decry the college can utter a sentence in Russian or Latin, or proper English?

The school so declined after Mr. Haskell’s departure that five or six scholarships have become the exception. Scholarships based on examinations set by and corrected by the Community College are questionable. That some scholars have been rusticated in recent times attests to the decline. Ask the government to release the study on the state of our education kept under wraps by the last administration. Soon our scholars may have to write the entrance examinations for Oxford and Cambridge

We are one of the very few countries with free secondary and tertiary education but it appears that some people don’t know the correct meaning of education or arrogance. That apart, today we are turning out certificated souls for whom there are no jobs and no mass migration possibilities. Tomorrow will likely be worst than yesteryear.

Clearing The Air