How to get more children interested in science? -educationist recommends specialist pay for teachers
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
January 4, 2005
Increments should be considered for attracting science and mathematics teachers in a bid to boost the science and technology sector, Director of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Mohandat Goolsarran said.
In a telephone interview, Goolsarran said the Guyana Teachers' Union (GTU) should reconsider this proposal, which was put on the table but rejected some years ago during the tenure of then minister of education Deryck Bernard.
Goolsarran said at present there is a shortage of Science and Mathematics teachers even though there are many programmes in place to encourage students and teachers to take part in Science and Technology and Mathematics programmes.
He recalled that during Bernard's tenure the shortage of these specialist teachers had been noted and additional money had been set aside to pay them.
However, he said the union had argued that all teachers were important and the money was distributed across the board. The opportunity to pay the specialist teachers better salaries was lost, he said.
Why pay them better? He said the cost of obtaining a Mathematics, Science or Technology degree was much higher than the Arts or Business. Textbooks, tools, equipment and experiments were more costly and time consuming. In addition, he said the subjects called for greater levels of analyses.
Even at the level of the examinations offered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), especially in the preparation of School Based Assessments (SBAs), the costs were higher than in other subjects, he said adding that maybe it was worth debating or considering a certain level of pay for specialist teachers in Mathematics, Science and Technology.
Responding to remarks from some quarters that not enough recognition or encouragement was being given to science and technology locally, Goolsarran said in terms of policy and curriculum, the Ministry of Education "could not be found wanting."
He said there were many programmes in place at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels to encourage participation in mathematics, science and technology but the issue was what was being done to attract persons to teach these subjects or attract them to professions requiring knowledge in these subject areas.
At the national level, he said, there were specialised Bachelors of Education degree programmes in these subject areas at the University of Guyana (UG) for teachers. He said not many teachers were applying for these programmes and even so, he said, a high drop-out rate was seen since these programmes were introduced four years ago.
He said a major challenge is to channel students and teachers into the science stream. He said at present teachers do not pursue a pure Mathematics degree but combined their studies with Statistics, Computer Science or some other related subject because of the assessment of the economic situation and job opportunities.
The major opportunity for a holder of a pure Mathematics degree, he said was teaching, which at present is not a lucrative option, thus his suggestion for increments for the specialist teachers.
At the primary and secondary levels, he said, the Ministry of Education was printing textbooks for the sciences; producing CDs for teaching aids; printing of Information Technology study guides for CXC; and reprinting CXC modules in the sciences for teachers.
Annually, too, he noted that the Ministry of Education in collaboration with Departments of Education sponsors regional and national science fairs with the national winners taking part in the Caribbean Science Fair.
To add to the annual activities, he noted that this year the ministry in collaboration with other entities brought to State House 'Yapallo' a mobile science museum that moves across the region. National Environmental Science competitions are held in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
To facilitate scientific experiments, UNESCO has provided a quantity of micro-science kits to secondary schools in hinterland regions as well as some on the coastland. Another set of these kits is scheduled to arrive for distribution very soon, he said. Teacher trainees at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) are also using the science kits.
On the suggestion that special awards should be given to outstanding performance by science and technology students, Goolsarran felt it was a suggestion that should be taken on board.
Meanwhile, two parents of children attending Queen's College told Stabroek News that they were in agreement with the concerns expressed in the Sunday Stabroek editorial of November 28 that young people were turning away from the science and technology subjects in favour of Economics and Business.
They agreed that the challenge remains to stimulate the interest of youngsters once again in Science subjects and to cast around for imaginative ways to make good the teaching deficiency in those areas.
The parents, who preferred anonymity because they have children in the lower and upper forms, were critical of the fact that Queen's College, the country's leading secondary school placed more emphasis on business, arts and technical subjects rather than on the sciences and mathematics.
They noted that at the school's last prize giving ceremony held on December 7 that the best student award, the Doodnauth Chetram Shield, was given, not to the best all-round student with outstanding passes in the sciences but to a student from the general stream.
The parents said they have noted over the years that awards were given to outstanding students in technical areas such as Home Economics, Industrial Arts, Music, Art, Agricultural Science but no awards were given for Physics, Chemistry or Biology.
Queen's College, they noted, was the school the Ministry of Education identified for the teaching of sciences in the sixth forms. As such they felt that more emphasis should be placed on awards for outstanding performance in the sciences.
They said a number of the students who pursued the sciences pointed out to them that they had much more School-based Assessments (SBAs) to complete than their counterparts who did the business subjects and there was no recognition for their work.
Stabroek News, too, recalled that some time ago, students who had written Mathematics in Form Four and obtained Grade one with straight 'A' profiles (referred to as distinctions), had complained that they were never acknowledged at the prize giving ceremonies.
One of the parents said that the incentives or rewards from the school level was not there for the sciences children and it was no wonder that a major portion of the cream of the crop at the Secondary Schools Entrance Examina-tions (SSEE) and the CXC examinations go into the business stream even though they have the capabilities to take on the sciences.