— Justin Santiago
Sep 13, 2012
SEPT 13 — Forget about trying to pretend to have an education blueprint that only seems to take baby steps to improve the level of education in the country.
Here are some sure-fire steps to improve the quality of education in the country by leaps and bounds without needing any blueprint.
Make it mandatory for all children of MPs, state assemblymen, Cabinet ministers all the way up to the prime minister to attend primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions in the country. This is a sure-fire way to improve the quality of education throughout the country.
If the politicians and government who are talking big about how high the standard of education in the country is, then their own children should benefit by it. Much like how government officials were forced to use Proton Perdanas, now is the time to force quality education down everyone’s throat
In a single swoop throughout the country standards will improve when the children of government officials participate as part of the transformation process. Those wanting their children to study at “prestigious universities” overseas will be forced to resign.
To prevent a situation where improvements are seen only in the schools or universities which are attended by the government officials’ children, policies have to be in place to make sure each of the children go to different schools or universities. If we do the maths the quality at approximately 400 schools and universities will improve dramatically. As for the rest of the schools or universities? Well, over time they too will improve with the coming and going of government officials.
As for the teaching profession, teachers’ salaries would have to be increased dramatically to be on par with the salaries of ministers.
This is to ensure that only the best will gravitate towards the teaching profession and correspondingly standards would go up. With the higher salary, teachers would be totally banned from providing private tuition outside school hours. There will be no need for teachers to look for additional income since their salaries are already high. Those caught will be handcuffed and jailed.
Funding for this jump in salaries would come from taking back all the money that is being spent on producing and implementing the education blueprint. There would be enough money not only to pay the higher salaries but for bonuses as well.
Teachers should also be given more authority and take up courses on how to administer punishment to ensure strict discipline among their students, one of which would be to learn how to wield a cane for the boys and how to pinch ears for the girls. There is no better way to discipline than administering a bit of pain. This move will also bring back respect to the teaching profession.
There you have it — a sure-fire way to raise the quality of education, the quality of the teaching profession and ultimately the quality of students.
* Justin Santiago was a student of St John’s Institution long before any blueprint was ever needed.