Sat­narayan Ma­haraj

T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) has, for many years, been the most se­ri­ous af­flic­tion on the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem and it has in­flict­ed un­told harm on the na­tion's chil­dren. TTUTA has im­ped­ed the ed­u­ca­tion­al growth and de­vel­op­ment of the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem over­all, and it is in­deed for­tu­nate to have sur­vived.

In any de­vel­oped ed­u­ca­tion­al ju­ris­dic­tion TTUTA would al­ready have been de­cer­ti­fied as a trade union. TTUTA has been a most re­gres­sive union and has demon­strat­ed re­peat­ed­ly its in­abil­i­ty to bring any de­cent idea to im­prove the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem. Nev­er has TTUTA ad­vanced any sig­nif­i­cant ini­tia­tive to as­sist in the trans­for­ma­tion of the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem and im­prove­ment of the lives of our cit­i­zens.

TTUTA is al­ways op­posed to any ini­tia­tive that will re­dound to the ben­e­fit of the na­tion–whether it was the change of date of the SEA ex­am­i­na­tions to al­low more teach­ing and learn­ing time, or the crit­i­cal in­tro­duc­tion of the Con­tin­u­ous As­sess­ment Com­po­nent of the SEA ex­am­i­na­tion.

It is now his­to­ry that these two in­tro­duc­tions have been suc­cess­ful­ly im­ple­ment­ed by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and will have a pos­i­tive im­pact on the teach­ing and learn­ing process well in­to the fu­ture. This year's SEA re­sult is tes­ta­ment to this far-reach­ing re­form.

TTUTA is stuck in a time warp of de­mand­ing "con­sul­ta­tions" and "de­ci­sions" and "ne­go­ti­a­tions" to stall any pro­gres­sive ini­tia­tive in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion. For­tu­nate­ly, top-qual­i­ty and de­ci­sive lead­er­ship are ex­er­cised by the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, Dr Tim Gopeesingh. Rea­son­able con­sid­er­a­tion is pro­vid­ed to ideas ad­vanced by those with an in­ter­est in the na­tion's wel­fare, and fi­nan­cial sup­port and oth­er as­sis­tance is pro­vid­ed to the ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor.

TTUTA op­pos­es ideas with­out of­fer­ing any clear and well-de­fined al­ter­na­tive that is sup­port­ed by re­search and em­pir­i­cal ev­i­dence. In­stead of dis­cussing, sug­gest­ing and rec­om­mend­ing ways to im­prove the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem, TTUTA al­ways pro­vides a gen­er­al neg­a­tive po­si­tion.

Any trade union worth its mem­ber­ship dues will be en­tire­ly en­gaged in deep and mean­ing­ful re­search to un­der­stand the re­quire­ments of the key is­sues. Lead­er­ship must be pro­gres­sive in­stead of be­ing re­gres­sive.TTUTA has nev­er ad­vanced any well thought-out, un­der­stood and agreed po­si­tion on mat­ters rel­e­vant to im­prove­ment of the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem. This body was cre­at­ed to re­place a teach­ers' union that many thought had failed the teach­ers and the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.

Its cur­rent hob­by horse is its con­stant at­tacks on de­nom­i­na­tion­al boards. There is no doubt that TUT­TA is fear­ful of suc­cess. Suc­cess­ful schools have no roles for ob­so­lete unions; on­ly unions that have a keen in­ter­est in the de­vel­op­ment of the ed­u­ca­tion­al sys­tem have our re­spect.

TTUTA's sly at­tacks on de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools can­not be, in any way, a so­lu­tion to ad­dress un­der­per­for­mance in schools. Cit­i­zens need to ag­gres­sive­ly ques­tion TTUTA on its po­si­tion on key ed­u­ca­tion is­sues: what is its al­ter­na­tive to re­place the SEA ex­am­i­na­tion?

What is its po­si­tion on zon­ing all lev­els of the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem? How can con­tin­u­ous as­sess­ment be used to place stu­dents at sec­ondary schools? What does it think is re­quired to im­prove teacher ef­fi­cien­cy and ef­fec­tive­ness, and lead­er­ship ca­pa­bil­i­ty and ca­pac­i­ty to im­prove school per­for­mances? What can it do to as­sist teach­ers in pro­fes­sion­al use of ICT tu­ition in the cur­ricu­lum?

These are just a few is­sues on which TTUTA should pro­vide well-de­fined sug­ges­tions and rec­om­men­da­tions.In­stead, TTUTA is fool­ish­ly pur­su­ing a neg­a­tive ap­proach to un­der­mine the con­fi­dence and sta­bil­i­ty which the de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools pro­vide for the na­tion. TTUTA is so fo­cused on prop­a­gat­ing myths about de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools that it has lost all sense of rea­son and log­ic.

There is abun­dant lit­er­a­ture which crit­i­cal­ly eval­u­ates the per­for­mance of de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools. There are ad­e­quate his­tor­i­cal and re­cent ex­pe­ri­ences to ef­fec­tive­ly de­fend de­nom­i­na­tion­al ed­u­ca­tion in a cul­tur­al­ly and re­li­gious­ly di­verse coun­try such as ours.

TTUTA is ex­treme­ly dis­re­spect­ful of the re­li­gious boards that have made an ex­tra­or­di­nary im­pact on the lives of cit­i­zens in nu­mer­ous spheres. It should be aware that if de­nom­i­na­tion­al boards rise up then the en­tire na­tion will be ris­ing up to sup­port them. Its lead­er­ship should take this as a warn­ing.

The last ar­ti­cle in this se­ries next week will fo­cus on de­bunk­ing the myths sur­round­ing de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools and ed­u­ca­tion.