Back to ‘Reading! ‘Riting! and ‘Rit-Me-Tick

CXC Results are out! Whether yuh pass CXC or not, my sincere congratulations to all de students, those who passed and those who unfortunately failed to pass dis time around. You are our future Nay-shun builders.

Failing to pass an exam is like stumping yuh toe, yuh bear de lickle pain,  yuh get up, treat it and walk again. Actually ah bin dey, done dat. Failing at first, den trying again. My short journey becoming ah Licensed Land Surveyor took ah short 12 years.

Back in 1955 ah was 14 years ole, way past de entrance age, dey somehow let me thru de side door into Grammar School. But come 1959, when ah went foh de book-list to go into Senior Cambridge, now CXC Form, ah see ah word “Superannuated” pon me Report Book. According to Webster/Google back den de meaning is: “ Outdated or obsolete through age!” Imagine at 18 years ah was deemed too ole to continue school!

Ah stood pon dat famous Grammar School Steps and ah wondered. (By de way, when are we going to clean up dat steps and cover it wid Marble, mek it ah Shrine)? De reality was dat after five of my best teenage years at one ah de Better Boys School in de Windward Islands, ah was like Kaisonian Ninja “ ah had nothing to show”. So ah left informal school ah Certified Academic failure. Ah did not even know how to catch ah fish, or plant ah grain ah corn or peas! Ah never planted ah Lack-ah-tan, didn’t know what ah Banana Sucker looked like! how to use ah Hammer, Saw or Plane!, so dat if Hurry-Came Bare-ill did come 65 years ago, ah would ah bin like de young people in de Southern Grenadines today, caught after ah storm wid me pants down, not knowing how to nail up ah window or nail down ah galvanize sheet to rebuild de roof over me head.

In those days (1965) young men on Bequia, Union Island, My-row, Can-One, and every coastal village on mainland SVG were building fishing boats and vessels, plying dey trade to Bo-bathe-us, Trinny-Dad and Guy-Anna. Today 2024, all dat’s no more. If only dis 23 year ole ULP Go-venom-mint, Friends and All-Lies of dem great developed countries, had paid ah lickle attend-shun, focussed “ Outside de Block” and included in its Edgy-care-shun Curry-cool-um, some practical “Hands-On Life Saving Skills- Fishing, Farming, Building and so on instead ah half ah dem “3 foh 10 CXC Subjects,” dis lickle country would ah bin better equipped and prepared to feed de region wid food and provide competent, skilled workers.

But since den lots ah changes, correct-shun, lots ah change in Go-venom-mints, still everything has remained de same. We still battling wid ah now Edgy-care-shun Rev-all-yuh- shun, Free Secondary Education foh ever child, dat included hundreds ah Primary School students widout or who lacked de basics 3R’s Reading; ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic! Who would have failed to pass Common Entrance, but dey were still placed in Secondary Schools. De slogan was “No child left behind.” Edu-Caterers in de class-room warned of de back-lash, but no one listened. Nah fee-get way ole people say: Who cant swim go sink!

Slowly de rotten fish in de bottom ah de bucket start ah stink. De folly or weakness in de system was manifesting itself wid ah lot ah drop outs, but those who were able to swim were breaking barriers 9, 12, 14, 15 subjects. No Comment!

Lie-Za believes CXC trying ah thing by slowly raising de standard, but de real bad rotten smell spreading thru-out de region. One Die-ah-know-sis is we are having an ole Edgy-care-shun pan-dem-ache spreading thru de region. In our haste to Edu-Kate we lost de main ingredients- de 3R’s: Reading. ‘Riting and ‘Rith-me-take We must go back to Square One “Numeracy and Literacy! Maths and English Lord have His Mercy. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

• Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.