Declaration of Sophia

Chapter 8 Revolutionising Our Educational System

8.1 As we husband and seek to develop and exploit our material resources for the benefit of our people, we must at the same time develop and in many cases, reorient, our human resources in the service of the nation.

8.2 The Party, through Government, has already begun the process of revolutionising the formal education system, a process aimed at eradicating the old colonial and capitalist valuers and introducing and emphasising new and relevant ones.

8.3 We have not been completely successful, for not only are the attitudes deep-rooted, but even those responsible for training in many cases need retraining. To this day, there are still some misguided teachers and lecturers who have no concept of and even resistant to the Co-operative. They prefer to inculcate in their wards, and emphasise, selfish individual objectives instead of those directed at the progress of the group, the community and the nation as a whole.

Ours Is a War

8.4 Further, it is not sufficiently appreciated that education and training in and out of the formal system are an integral part of the national development process. That explains why there are so many misfits whose energies and potential lie idle and unused so far as the national programme and objectives are concerned.

8.5 Ours is a war. It may not involve a clash of arms and the unleashing of weapons of destruction. But it is still a vital struggle - one against poverty, ignorance, unemployment, hunger and exploitation and we cannot afford the luxury of having uninvolved citizens, especially youth, who seek to get and not to give.

8.6 A massive campaign has been launched in which there can be no place for the disinterested and nonconformist who envisages freedom in terms of indulging in the practices and attitudes which were part of the old colonial order. We did not win political freedom from colonialism to protect the freedom of colonialism to poison and mislead our society and divert us from our national goals.

8.7 Outside of the formal education institutions, others like Trade Unions and co-operatives should be viewed as part of the total national education system. Our sponsorship and patronage of the co-operative in this regard must continue and must increase, and more public funds must and will be expended on trade union education, especially through the Critchlow Labour College.

Our Institutions

8.8 The new Teachers' College has been built, not as part of a general programme of building and construction, but to provide the environment, atmosphere and facilities conducive to the training of some of the nation's most important teachers.

8.9 Primary schools will have to be expanded, re-equipped, restaffed. Curricula will have to be changed as part of this campaign. In this context, there is further scope for carrying on our national tradition of community self-help.

8.10 More assistance will be extended to private secondary schools so long as they fill the gap caused by an insufficient number of Government Secondary Schools. But all Private Secondary Schools, whether government-aided or not, will be regulated and will only be permitted to function if they conform to certain physical and professional standards. It is time that we get rid of some of these cramshops which call themselves schools and operate for the pecuniary benefit of a few individuals. Education is the nation's responsibility.

8.11 The multilateral schools now being completed, and the Community High Schools soon to be instituted, will add considerably to the non-fee-paying education establishment. Already all co-operative, technical and agricultural training is free, and the goal, not far from achievement, is a system of completely free post-primary education. Primary education, as you know, is already free and as from September 1975, tuition fees at the University of Guyana of Guyana will be abolished.

National Service - Total Involvement

8.12 National Service, which has got off to an excellent start, is part of our total education system. The purpose and role of this Service have already been discussed and stated elsewhere and I do not propose to continue the discussion here. I shall satisfy myself with making three observations:

(1) The Service bestrides the whole society, involving youths in and out of formal schools - those who were formally referred to as delinquents and social outcasts, those in correctional institutions, and other adults.

(2) The response from the citizens has been most enthusiastic.

(3) The Service has been the object of congratulatory comments for its underlying objectives and philosophy, as well as for the performance of its members, these comments coming from a wide spectrum of Guyanese and non-Guyanese.