The Editor
The Anguillian

Dear Sir

Knee Jerk Thinking: No Longer an Option in Government

Much has been said about the appointment of Mrs Chanelle Petty-Barrett to the post of Permanent Secretary of Education, Youth and Culture. Certainly, the appointment is surprising as one would naturally expect that an educator should fill such an important position. Perhaps, experience (in Anguilla that often reads as ‘age’) is important. Training in the field of education should have been considered a priority. The arguments are logical, but are they relevant? Not really.

A closer examination of the issues at work in our society suggests that knee jerk thinking is no longer an option. We have done things that way before, what’s wrong with a new way? The old paradigms have to be shifted to make way for a new level of consciousness and productivity. The Deputy Governor is demonstrating a hawkish attention to the details of public duty, and this is no doubt upsetting to the status quo. Automatic ascension through the rank and file of public service is an old paradigm which is losing its effectiveness, if it were ever effective.

What really is there to be gained by automatic promotion? Sameness. Complacency. A continuity of bad habits. Malaise. Arrogance. Chronic myopia. This smells of death to any system. The mere fact that the position has to be advertised and the candidates interviewed suggest that any one of the applicants could have been appointed to the position. Had it been automatic that one of the candidates be the automatic choice, then there would be no need for the application and interviewing process.

We all agree that the schools are hot spots of concern. We all agree that we would like more happening in our schools. We all agree that the problems at school are overwhelming. And we all agree that the problems are complex. The old paradigms are not helping us to put forward the solutions that we need. Too much of what is happening in the Education Department is focused on academia: the various curricula, CXC, CAPE, Tests of Standards, the next Spelling B … Yet, there are compelling issues that the teachers are confronted with each day that directly affect all things academic. And yet these compelling issues are still waiting to be addressed.

We are waiting for Drug Awareness to be a part of the curriculum. We are waiting for Conflict-Resolution to be a meaningful part of the curriculum. We are waiting for Parental Development Programmes to be a part of the programming in every school. It is sad that our Education Department often waits for an idea, policy, or programme to be tested in the Isle of Wight, England, or in some place where snow falls on the ground and apples grow on trees so that we could borrow it wholesale (a lot of the time). We need innovation and vision in this Department, like in all Government Departments. We need creative and viable solutions that are birthed in our social, cultural, historical, religious context.

And it is against this backdrop that one must appreciate the appointment of Mrs Petty-Barrett. There is no claim that she has all the solutions. What is interesting is that she is an outsider looking in on the issues related to education, and this might just lend itself to more rove, more zoom, more perspective, more panorama. It is needless to point out that sometimes to gain an appreciation and understanding of an object of focus, one has to move away from it and view it from afar. While it is not the intent of this article to relegate the education and experience of our educators, it must be said the teachers and Heads of Departments are overwhelmed by the negative moral and social issues that they have to deal with on a daily basis. This sort of mental congestion does not lend itself to creativity and innovation. There is need for a fresh supply of insight from outside the ranks.

If it is true that ‘education is the key to success’, then there is need for more clicking. Education as sanctioned by the Department of Education has to start clicking with the issues out there in our society. The Department is way too dormant, too closed, too complacent in these times of social upheaval. We still persist in believing that if we ignore a problem, it will go away; or that the issues are someone else’s. Education has to take on a wider social and cultural significance. We demand that the clicking be heard outside the school walls; that education starts unlocking more doors that block our progress. We demand that education be felt in the streets. We demand that education becomes a lifestyle.

If Government Departments are going to step up to the challenges of these times, then we have to “conduct business unusual”. There must be openings for new perspectives, new ideas, new visions, new dreams. The old paradigms are not working. The old hierarchies have to be challenged, dismantled even, if we want to be relevant in these times, especially in areas that concern our youth.

- Observer

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