{"id":56523,"date":"2026-04-07T07:10:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56523"},"modified":"2026-04-07T07:10:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:10:04","slug":"capital-nonsense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56523","title":{"rendered":"Capital nonsense"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raffique Shah
\nMarch 28, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Raffique Shah<\/a>In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire, a Marxist educator of yesteryear, wrote that education should be a practice of freedom, empowering the oppressed to achieve critical consciousness and transform society.<\/p>\n

With this transformation, I suppose he dared to engender a society so far removed from ignorance that there would be no chance of large swathes of the world wallowing in abject poverty where crime remains a foremost option.
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\nI read Freire\u2019s book back in the 1970s where as a young adult, I was a part of the global revolution in which we were set to change the world. But we were never allowed to because the colonial mindset was deeply embedded in the planners and movers of society, with few countries escaping that mire.<\/p>\n

So last Thursday evening on the news, when I saw the SEA children coming out of the exam rooms with smiles of relief on their faces, I felt sorry for them and their parents, who would have stood steadfastly by their sides throughout this harrowing ordeal.<\/p>\n

Why, in this day and age, do we have our young children being subjected to that level of stress? Many of them, whose parents would have been through the same cycle eons ago, know what they endured when they passed for anything but their first choice of secondary schools.<\/p>\n

No matter what the educators and prominent in society try to convince them or perhaps themselves of, in Trinidad the secondary school you attend matters.<\/p>\n

It matters because more often than not, the top educators, trained and specialised in their subject areas and their delivery styles, are incomparable. These educators are often assigned to mainly the prestigious schools in the various zones throughout the country.<\/p>\n

These schools are often out of reach of the students who have the aptitude but because of where the student may live, their family\u2019s social standing and their parents\u2019 economic situation, they are excluded. As a matter of fact, this has been happening in the primary schools as well. The prominent primary schools require information or data of the students\u2019 parents\u2019 earnings \u00adbefore they favour them for inclusion into the school.<\/p>\n

Then there is the question of the environment in which they live. Once violence, domestic or otherwise, seeps into the life of the child, he or she may be so influenced to do likewise.<\/p>\n

It is true that households and extended families that use extra-curricular activities, as well as community or collective creativity\u2014especially in music or sport\u2014can move mountains with their talent. They can alter the faces of such communities forever. I watch, for example, the surge in football, cricket and athletics, as well as music which almost runs axiomatically in teams and individual performers that can reach the skies. The wizards in academics add the flavour that will make them not just \u201cprestige\u201d, but superior in every way.<\/p>\n

Those in the Ministry of Education owe it to the nation\u2019s children to provide them with the best education possible. Furthermore, they owe them the best educators, not some John or Jenny who couldn\u2019t find a job in their field so they entered teaching to earn a salary. You need people who are trained to impart their knowledge in the most efficient and effective way possible.<\/p>\n

Favouritism isn\u2019t only for the students; there are many well connected teachers on the outside who find favour in the upper reaches of the education system. In some instances, they virtually run the institution. The ugly face of political interference ensures that partisan support gets well connected; be it student or teacher, your party card can get you far in life. Our students deserve better than that.<\/p>\n

Through the years, I have kept in touch with men, most of whom attended the same schools I did. And, yes, it was a prestige school, Presentation College, Chaguanas. Favouritism for entry at Pres did exist, even back then. We boys knew who would attend Pres before the entrance exam and college exhibition exam were written.<\/p>\n

When I hear of some of them who attended my alma mater, I just know they could not have gotten in on their own merit, even the ones who claim they got a Grade 1.<\/p>\n

We cannot continue like this. We have so many plans but so little implementation. And, of those implemented, they just seem to make things more difficult for our little ones.<\/p>\n

Starting from the top, put an education minister who actually knows what he or she is doing and is capable of exacting positive changes towards a better system that may, once and for all, get rid of this Common Entrance system. Because let\u2019s face it, name it what you will, it is the same capital nonsense packaged in common newsprint booklets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raffique Shah March 28, 2026 In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire, a Marxist educator of yesteryear, wrote that education should be a practice of freedom, empowering the oppressed to achieve critical consciousness and transform society. With this transformation, I suppose he dared to engender a society so far removed from ignorance that there … Continue reading Capital nonsense<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[169],"class_list":["post-56523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","tag-raffique-shah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56524,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56523\/revisions\/56524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}