Stephen Vasciannie
PEOPLE HAVE been giving me things about education. I think this is because I work at the University of the West Indies. The following came to hand last week, and I hasten to add that it is not necessarily from the hand of a UWI student. It's a letter to a company by a prospective employee.
It reads in part:
"I would this job opportunity, as I am currently a student of a ternary institution ( ... ) and so employment here would provide a substantial source of financial support Notwithstanding, it is my intention (if given the opportunity) to work to my fullest potential. Includes therefore is a resume with my personal information."
There is probably no need for me to comment on the stylistic infelicities and grammatical confusion in this passage, though I am obliged to note that my computer's 'grammar check' finds nothing wrong with it. What strikes me most is that this passage is designed to impress - "I would like to work with you, so I am putting my best foot forward." This letter says to me that the candidate, well-intentioned and earnest, simply does not know that (s)he has a problem with the English Language.
WORRIED ELITIST?
Some people, colleagues even, may say that I am being elitist, but I find this situation quite worrying. Until the society decides otherwise, and I do not believe it should, English is the language of formal communication in Jamaica. Consequently, employers have every right to expect that a certain minimum standard of proficiency is readily met by graduates of tertiary institutions. When this kind of evidence comes forth, employers will simply assume that Tertiary Institution X has lost its way, and will turn to other institutions for recruitment purposes.
The person who received this letter, and who sent it on, does not have a tertiary degree, but was well-schooled in Jamaica.
Understandably, she finds the letter most disconcerting and, if anything, it has confirmed her deep reservations about sending her brilliant child to a local tertiary institution. She believes that standards have gone through the floor.
How do I answer this charge in the face of the evidence before me (i.e. the letter)? Rather than proceed on a sociological trip concerning the causes of this situation, I would make one simple point: persons who grade papers at tertiary institutions should vow that students will not gain degrees or diplomas unless or until they demonstrate that they can write proper English.
And we should not allow ourselves to be detained by pernickety arguments about the definition of 'proper English'. We should know the elephant even if we are not in a position fully to define it.
The letter writer genuinely does not know that (s)he is in error - after all, (s)he has presumably passed CSec English, CAPE subjects, and has taken or is about to take a university degree. The authorities at tertiary institutions have to say "hold on" with the enthusiasm of an overexcited deejay, to such candidates.
DEGREE OF RIOTING
Another document that came my way last week concerns faraway China. According to the New York Times of June 21, students at Shengda College in central China have been rioting. The students have paid US$2,500 per year to pursue studies towards a degree. They have received the degree, but therein lies the rub.
Shengda College had promised students that they would receive degrees in the name of its parent institution, the more illustrious, Zhengzhou University, and that there would be no reference to Shengda on the degree certificate. This has not happened: so, distraught graduates of Shengda have behaved uproariously because they have not been given the status of 'pure' graduates of Zhengzhou U.
This report says much about standards, and about the value that students place on education, wherever in the world they may happen to be. It reminded me of the Jamaican father who reportedly flogged his child because her GSAT results had caused her to be placed at one secondary school instead of at a more highly rated one.
My fear is that in many Jamaican homes, parents of our stronger students are assuming that Jamaican institutions are like Shengda, and that we have no Zhengzhous here. Parents will rightly say, by your deeds we shall know you - or, in some cases, by the letters of your graduates.
Stephen Vasciannie is head of the Department of Government, UWI, and a Deputy Solicitor General in the Attorney-General's chambers.
