The results of the primary and secondary school exams and
the scholarships awarded over the last two decades presage
the real possibility that a large segment of Afro-Trinidad
is gradually becoming an underclass, the biblical hewers of
wood and drawers of water.
Simultaneously, the children and young adults of Indo-Trinidadians,
those of mixed ancestry, the descendants of Europe, China
and the Middle East are diligently working towards occupying
the commanding heights of the economy and society; and there
can only be commendation for such industry.
These are not new observations, neither are they being made
now to spark a new round of racial antagonism. Rather, they
are being brought to the consciousness of people so that something
be done to prevent the society stepping over the edge.
In the build-up to and the immediate aftermath of the Black
Power revolution of 1970, Bro Valentino was scathing of the
“black man’s sense of taste, which you could trace
to all dem fancy showcase; Trinidad is nice for men like Sabga,
Kirpalani, Maharaj and Y de Lima…”
Maestro too sang about the black men who make big money in
the oilfield in south, run down plenty woman, buy Toyota Crown
and park them outside in the rain—sorry I had to paraphrase
the bard, the lyrics do not come readily to mind.
At the same time, Composer was singing about the “dotish”
manner in which black people were training their children;
about the wayward male and the frustrated mother venting on
the young children left behind.
During the last decade Gypsy gave us the picture of the Little
Black Boy basking in ignorance.
Similarly, academics and columnists have alerted the society
to what is happening.
Obviously there are qualifications to the view of the emerging
underclass. There are tens of thousands of young people of
African origin who achieve as well as anyone. Similarly there
are tens of thousands of the sons and daughters of India who
are also underachieving. But in its raw form the figures tell
the story.
As a means of establishing something of a statistical base
to the viewpoint, take the results of the top 133 students
who did the 2004 Secondary Entrance Exam (SEA). Of that number,
only 44 had non-Indian names; and of the 44, there is no precise
way of saying how many were Afro-Trinidadian. Assuredly many
of them had Chinese names.
When the names of last year’s national scholarships awardees
were printed, there was a similar pattern, and the year before
that.
To forestall the race baiters, the observations and contentions
have nothing to do with any inherent ethnic biological deficiency
or superiority.
They have everything to do with family life, ambition and
values, the quality of schools and administration and commitment
and the lack thereof by elements of the teaching staffs.
Non-educator that I am, but taking note as parent and social
observer, it seems clear that quality family life, the values
inculcated in our children (of all ethnic groups) and the
ambitions we help them to develop are the major factors that
create a class of achievers and separate them from this emerging
underclass of young people, uninspired to positively exercise
their minds in the classroom and outside of it.
In a previous column, having witnessed the multi-ethnic achievers
of St Joseph’s Convent (PoS), the observation was made
that young people who come from homes in which they do not
have to have a concern for where the morning meal is to come
from, or how the books, computers and other instruments of
learning are to be had, have a built-in advantage over those
who do not have access to assured meals, far more acquiring
computers and other appurtenances of modern education.
But it is also true that thousands of such economically disadvantaged
children do well in the exams, whipping the more favourably
positioned children into places below them on the academic
ladder.
That demonstrates that quality family life, ambition, high
social, moral and spiritual values and native intelligence,
the elements for success, are not the preserve of middle class
families.
It is also important to note that academic prowess is far
from being the only defining mark of achievement of young
people. Moreover, that significant numbers of disadvantaged
young people surpass the academic achievement of their peers
in other forms of endeavour and at a later stage in life.
However, you cannot get around the fact of present underachievement
no matter how it’s qualified and the reality too that
under-achieving sets the individual back at this stage of
life.
Undoubtedly too there is an institutional character to the
underachievement, more pronounced in the government-operated
schools.
A faulty education curriculum lacking in breadth to facilitate
and reward other forms of intelligence, broken-down physical
plant, insufficient numbers of quality school places, inadequately
trained and motivated teachers, and principals without the
management and human skills to foster co-operation and excellence
amongst staff are all contributing to the underachievement.
However, citing too many qualifications allows for the original
projection to be minimised—Afro-Trinidadians are underachieving
in large numbers and the risk is real that large segments
of the black population can become the underclass and if nothing
is done to halt the slide, in a generation Afro-Trinidadians,
the large majority of them, would find themselves in a permanent
position of dispossession and second class status.
This is not in the interest of anyone because there is bound
to be implosion and explosion if such a possibility were to
emerge in full bloom.
The Ministry of Education and the Government have the data
and are therefore in a position to do the remedial work. From
the cursory analysis of the data of the SEA exams, the geography
and religious orientation of the schools that have done well
are patent.
Apart from the curriculum transformation that has to come,
the planned total decentralisation of the management of the
school system has to be immediately implemented.
I wish there were easy answers to the even more encompassing
and seemingly intractable problem of the poor quality family
life and lack of positive ambition that are fueling this underachievement
in segments of the Afro-Trinidadian population.
From JJ Thomas in the 19th century to the golden age of
black scholarship in the early and mid 20th century, black
men and women lived to advance their children into the next
generation. Blacks today have found themselves most corrupted
by the influences of our times.
