In Inequality, Crime & Education in Trinidad and Tobago: Removing the Masks, Ramesh Deosaran brings into the light of scrutiny a subject that's plagued the society for many years, and to which much talk and money have been directed with unsatisfactory results. That the education system is in a state of trauma and failure, and desperately needs some kind of intervention, all agree. What to do, and the specific problems, are not so clear. Refreshingly, Prof Deosaran has at his disposal several years of empirical survey and statistical data he mobilises to illustrate his points as he examines the educational system in detail. He also has suggestions as to how to fix it.
The book is divided into 16 chapters, and begins with socio-educational history (from the 19th century), and moves through the postcolonial predicament, the chasm between "prestige" and government schools, the Concordat, the SEA and primary schools, and ethnic and class conflict in education. The tertiary system is mentioned, but as an end-point of primary and secondary systems.
The abundance of data is reassuring, since the title suggests an uncomfortable relationship among crime, inequality, and a failed education system. This implicates race, class and geography in familiar, toxic patterns, which are discussed in frequently hostile terms in the public sphere. The reality is that students of African descent, from the lower economic classes, from socio-economically depressed areas tend to fare the worst in the school system. The data show this clearly. What is not so clear is why.
A large part of the reason, according to Deosaran, is the legacy of colonialism, indenture and slavery. He writes of the pre-independence educational environmental environment that "the education system in terms of curriculum and enrolment, was riddled with social and class distinctions and racial marginalisation". In the post-colonial period, education was touted as the great equalizer, but the access and attitudes to it were shaped by the issues of race and class.
According to contemporary data, 47 per cent of students of African origin entered university three years after high school, while 72 per cent of Indians, and 49 per cent of the mixed group did. Furthermore, "entering university seems to be the preferred route for Form Five graduates of East Indian descent". This has as much to do with the culture and socialisation of the students (family and community support) as it does with ethnicity. He notes the aspirations of students (today) from the lower economic classes are more fanciful about education, seeing it as a symbolic fetish rather than a realisable goal.
Apart from ethnicity, other data collected include tracking surveys to determine whether student outcomes are dependent on schools attended. It's no surprise that students from "prestige" schools fare better and access more education. The data show that "as many as 71 per cent of students from (prestige) schools chose to 'study only' after the fifth form, compared with 34 and 28 per cent from government secondary and other government schools".
Notwithstanding, there is some good news. The proportions of those who accessed tertiary education (by social class) show that there is a significant "gate crasher" class: 41 per cent of those in tertiary education are from the lower social economic classes. This implies social mobility, and not in a small way.
Deosaran specifically roots the ethnic and cultural dimension of the educational inequity in the phenomenon of Plantation society. He proposes that a fundamental distrust of authority and mistrust among competing ethnic groups were transmitted culturally through the last century-and-a-half. He calls the Plantation with its unjustifiably oppressive laws, and its failure to give Africans and Indians a stake in the society, a "criminogenic breeding ground" which makes "turning to crime ... a rational adventure".
Indeed, he writes, Plantation logic determines the dynamics of education and the system–its inequity in the disbursement of education, and the promise of social mobility vs a praxis of "job preparation", usually for repetitive, unimaginative, and dreary work.
Another consequence of Plantation society and its bourgeois aspirations is a strong, culturally reinforced bias to university education, and low status ascribed to technical and vocational education. Deosaran's data reveal that 80 per cent of First Formers opted for a future in university, and only five per cent opted for technical vocational. In the tech-voc programmes the national pass rate is around 30 per cent.
Such a system, with its manifest unfairness in the placement of a small minority of students in "prestige" places, and the mass in less-than-desirable schools, leads to a "psychology of failure" which mutates into other social pathologies, like crime. This is expatiated upon at length in Chapter 15, "Strain, Failed Ambitions and Crime", where he identifies specifically the East-West Corridor as an enabling environment for the inversion of civic values. That is, the gangster culture seems to lead to acceptance and approval, while conventional aspirations are looked down upon.
Inequality, Crime & Education provides a great deal of valuable and usable information on the education system in T&T. It concludes with 14 recommendations which serve as a starting point for reform of the system. It also provides an admirable statement of the goal of education, which is contained in the national education plan. The aim of education should be to create "a spiritually, morally, physically, intellectually and emotionally sound individual".
That said, the book does not adequately address a few crucial issues. Some statements are made, but questions are not asked. The work ethic in denominational schools is higher than in government schools (as measured by teacher attendance and punctuality, in addition to student performance) (p130). Why is this so? Examining this would provide a tremendous insight into the problem.
And therein lies a contentious issue: Deosaran writes with a decidedly populist orientation, which at times panders to strong contemporary emotional views on ethnicity and social relations, and omits relevant historical facts. For example in his introduction, he writes of the emergence of a "black, male underclass," which is the endpoint of the systemic dysfunctionality. He cites an IDB report by way of confirmation, which states "improving education equality is implicitly related to ethnic equality."
He writes of "inequity" as a zero-sum game: as if those who access and benefit from the system take something away from those who access the same system at different points. But inequity is a more complicated phenomenon, addressed in a gush of literature in books like Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, and others like Identity Economics by Akerlof and Kranton, and Behavioural Economics by Richard Thaler. These link inequality to contemporary predator capitalism and its resultant wealth distribution.
Deosaran does mention capitalism as a determinant of the educational dynamic, in terms of the type of education required for its ideal workforce, but does not pursue it adequately. Indeed, Deosaran's main theme sounds like the victimisation argument: that the system is somehow stacked against the poor African segment of the population. A Nation of Islam representative is quoted, as are calypsos by Gypsy and Cro Cro. It's all taken literally, not placed into a context of neo-Garveyism and its iterations post-1970. Neither does proposition of the victimisation of black children face the fact that T&T has been governed by black governments (as opposed to Indo-led governments) for 44 of its 54 years of Independence.
Other crucial elements, like community, environmental and parental stability are mentioned, but as seemingly unrelated variables. Deosaran does link educational outcomes to "what we do elsewhere in the economy, polity and society", but does not pursue this line of argument. Many ideas are put forward, all of them plausible and data-supported, but there is no overarching theory or explanation linking the book together, explaining what has led to the present state of affairs.
Two critical elements Deosaran ignores are the heterogeneity of the black population, and the high "churn rate" in population in the last generation especially. Like most social researchers, he ignores the fact that almost a quarter of the population emigrated between 1962 and 1990, and were replaced by immigrants from the other islands. These immigrants ended up usually in squatter communities or in the most socio-economically depressed areas along the East-West Corridor.
It is the children and grandchildren of these immigrants who constitute the most disadvantaged segment of the educational population. While there is a marked hostility to this fact, it is documented and some community activists, like the late George Alleyne, sought to bring it to national attention.
In a letter to the editor published in the Newsday on September 3, 2013, Alleyne, who worked in Beetham Gardens for a number of years, wrote: "An undeniable part of the problem flows from disaffected youths being either illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants...parents who were illegal immigrants were afraid to seek to have their children, although they (the children) were born here, registered at state and state assisted schools for fear of their immigration status being revealed and being deported. As a result, a sizable number of children in Beetham Gardens never received a formal education and some can neither read nor write."
Finally, Inequality, Crime and Education is an important and timely work. It provides a starting point for discussion and further research, and more importantly, action on fixing the education system.
BOOK INFO
Inequality, Crime & Education
in Trinidad and Tobago:
Removing the Masks
By Ramesh Deosaran
Ian Randle Publishers, 2016