Listening to the various radio programmes, or visiting many of the social media sites can leave persons with the impression that Anguilla is plagued with problems for which they are no solutions in sight. It often appears that we are a nation of complainers. We have a litany of complaints. Nothing is going right. Nothing has changed over the last fifty years. Our health system is poor. Our education system has failed the young people. There are no jobs for school leavers. The list of complaints goes on and on.
To the critical thinker, two things become obvious when you examine the litany of complaints. The first is that there is very often no objective basis for the complaints. Who can, using objective and statistical measures, honestly say that our health care system and education system have not improved over the last 50 years? In both instances, facilities and personnel have improved. Persons who would have had to suffer certain ailments without adequate care, some years ago, now receive such care in Anguilla. The availability of dialysis care is but one such example. Students are no longer restricted to studying the sciences, languages or businesses at Fifth Form or Sixth Form level. Students can excel in Music, Theatre Arts, Visual Arts, Technical Drawing, Electronics and a range of other subject areas. Yet persons, without regard for facts, can be blatantly heard to say that Anguilla has made no progress in these areas in the last fifty years.
The second thing that is immediately obvious to the more discerning listeners and readers is that the complainers not only often have no objective basis for their categorical statements, but they also offer no solutions for the plight that they consider Anguilla to be in. To recount the myriad of shortcomings you believe are plaguing Anguilla, without offering solutions, is pointless and might be a reflection of the fact that persons making these pronouncements actually recognise the falsity in their statements.
The truth of the matter is that Anguilla has come a far distance over the past fifty years and this should be recognised and commended. Has Anguilla arrived? No, it has not. In fact, we are on a journey and still have a fair distance to go. We, however, will not get there quicker by denouncing all that has been accomplished, and diminishing those who worked to accomplish it. If we simply acknowledge the work that has gone into developing institutions and persons in Anguilla, and join with those charged with continually developing Anguilla’s institutions and people, we will cover the fair distance we still have to go in quicker time.
In recent times the education system and those charged with various responsibilities in the education sector have come under rigorous attack. One would have liked to be able to say that the education system has come under rigorous scrutiny rather than attack, because that is what should always be. Sadly, the word ‘attack’ seems to be a more accurate word to describe the often unsubstantiated and, therefore, unwarranted comments made about the education system and those who hold responsible positions in that system. Certain areas are said to be missing from the curriculum when those areas are in fact present; teachers are accused of only employing ‘chalk and talk’ in the teaching of our children and no other interactive and engaging teaching methods, when many teachers do otherwise and, in so doing, ensure that there are occasions for independent learning and peer teaching. According to some, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has not advanced in the last thirty years, yet students now pursue such subject areas as Woodwork, Metalwork, Auto Mechanics and Technical Drawing. The education system deserves to be subjected to scrutiny and constructive criticism because there are many areas in which it can and should do better. Such criticism, when it comes, should be based on an objective analysis of the system, carefully examining where it was, where it is, how it came to be there and what were the motivations for earlier decisions. Such critical analysis will be reflected in objective and meaningful engagement with education officials, resulting in concerted efforts to further improve the education system and the achievement of those improvements in quicker time.
Persons under attack usually mount a defence. Mounting a defence is time consuming and diverts much needed resources away from pursuing and achieving the improvements that Anguillians, residents and visitors deserve. Let us, therefore, engage in robust scrutiny and objective criticism rather than subjective attacks.
If truth be told, based on the many achievements of Anguillians at home and abroad recently, this period in our history can aptly be described as a great time to be Anguillian. We have much to celebrate.
