Ever so often one hears the phrase “Education is key” when it comes to various matters of national awareness, and interest, relating to the way forward out of any given situation. A leading challenge now confrontingAnguillais the issue of gang violence and other acts of crime. That challenge is causing our secular and religious leaders and citizenry to scratch their heads to find answers to halt this wanton behaviour, and to address its negative impacts on community life and our small society in general.
For some reason, whether fact or assumption, the comprehensive system of education, we have had inAnguillasince in 1986, is being blamed for a portion of the violence on the island today. Persons holding that view argue that a number of youngsters, who were unable to cope in a system where children of mixed abilities were lumped together in classrooms, developed a bitterness against others who showed better educational prowess than them. Persons making that claim maintain that those youngsters stayed outside the school’s compound disturbing classes thus preventing the others from learning; that they eventually became dropouts – failures – and that their animosities spilled over in the community leading to the current spate of violence.
This, of course, may be considered by other persons as conjecture taking into account such factors as drug trafficking and abuse, and that some youngsters may simply be prone to violence and rebellion against society. There is no doubt, however, that there is cause for frustrations, among children in an education system in which some possess the ability and skills to learn, while others do not and consequently feel left out or sidelined. Such a concept was expressed as recently as Tuesday this week by one of the speakers at a meeting called to discuss the problem of gang violence in at least two of the communities.
There has long been a lot of talk about addressing this situation of mixed abilities – at the comprehensive school – with the proposed introduction of a technical school for children more inclined to skills learning. Talk is cheap, to use a common phrase, because, up to now, although there is a technical and vocational element at the school, the matter has not been adequately addressed to a level where a considerable percentage of the student body can benefit from accessing all the practical or theoretical knowledge available in a multiplicity of skills and trades. The result is that there are many youngsters walking the streets devoid of the necessary skills to generate employment and income. Naturally, idle hands can become mischievous and troublesome.
But there appears to be some hope on the horizon. It is the coming into being of theAnguillaCommunity Collegewith its plans, hopefully in the near future, to build an educational complex that would, apart from academic learning, provide a full range of technical subjects and training. This may not be of any particular assistance to some of the youngsters who have already fallen by the wayside, but it could ensure that others coming up are given the opportunities they need to succeed and lead productive lives.
Adding to that planned and worthwhile initiative is the offer of several technical skills courses by the Caribbean Office of the world-renowned City & Guilds, using the Community College as a centre of delivery. What is of interest, is that even persons in the construction sector, many with no other qualifications than some years of experience, can, on assessment, become students of the programme not to mention others with interest in, or knowledge of, other skills and trades.
The Anguillian is not certain what impact the much-delayed Education Bill will have on the improvement or administration of technical and vocational education inAnguilla. But there appears to be much concern about this matter at the Community College which is calling for its urgent passage. It is understood, however, that the enactment of the legislation would ensure that a TVET Council, responsible for matters of training, administration and oversight, is properly established inAnguilla.
It is further understood that its existence would ensure that the courses offered inAnguillameet certain requirements of both TVET and City & Guilds. It is said that without such a Council, education providers inAnguillawould not know whether what they set out to provide would meet those requirements. In short, they would be operating in the dark.
The result of not having the TVET facility could possibly mean a denial of the provision of a wide range of technical education – in terms of skills and trades – to our growing number of unemployed and disgruntled youth. This could then be another cause of feelings of being left out – among young people – probably similar to the case which persons claim resulted from the inability of the comprehensive system of education to address the learning needs of all children.
Whatever one thinks about that claim, it cannot be denied that “education is the key” not only to employment and income, but to addressing matters of violence and crime, and to promoting order and goodwill in the community as well.
