Losing the joys of the printed word
Yesterday (September 9, 2013), the entire country should have halted whatever it was doing, grabbed a book and read. Of course the exercise allowed for people to read their e-mail, web chats and just about anything that contained the written word. The occasion was World Literacy Day and it meant a lot to the administrators in the Education Ministry.
For one, English is supposed to be the mother language of the Guyanese people but from recent results less than forty per cent of the students writing the examinations in school exhibit a grasp of the language. Many cannot spell basic English words and the vast majority do not have a vocabulary.
This did not happen overnight. Perhaps the decline in understanding the language coincided with the rise in inflation that priced books out of the reach of the ordinary man. Having to choose between a book and food on the table, it goes without saying what the choice would have been. Continue reading
