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Just over 50 years ago, the first of our junior secondary schools threw open its doors as part of a two-cycle education reform model.
Following independence in 1962, the government felt compelled to not just open up the country’s education system but to also broaden its scope and focus, given the country’s industrial thrust with a now well-established oil industry.
The 1868-1983 Education Plan, having recommended the establishment of junior secondary schools (age group 11-14) and senior comprehensive schools (14-18 years) saw the first of these schools being opened in 1972 courtesy of a World Bank loan (1968-1972/74).
This reformed education approach dated back to the 1959 Maurice Report and later the UNESCO Mission of 1965 which recommended a mixture of academic and practical subjects being offered at the same secondary school.
The widening of access to secondary education via the introduction of a Common Entrance exam in 1961, replacing the perceived elitist College Exhibition exam was a democratising thrust capable of exerting equalising pressures on the society.
Free secondary education from 1961 was perhaps the most popular measure ever undertaken by the Eric Williams government. State schools represented an opportunity for his nationalist ideology to assume prominence, for he saw secondary schools as the “cradle of a new nationalism.”
Secondary education was visualised as the means by which economic progress can be achieved through social integration – bringing different races and classes into the same school while downplaying the elitist colonial style grammar schools which characterised the education landscape.
The introduction of technical-vocational education opportunities at the secondary level was now an imperative for a country aspiring toward industrialisation. The oil boom of the 1970s could finally enable the government to realise its vision of large-scale industrial development from the 1970s onwards with these new junior secondary and senior comprehensive schools, helping fill the demands of an economy for trained manpower.
The focus on education as a social equaliser for a post-colonial society anchored the governance model post-independence, with the new found revenues of oil from the 1973 bonanza being used to not just equalize education access but to also attempt to address issues of equity.
These new schools were large and ultra-modern, setting new standards for school construction and equipment in the country and region and formed the basis for the production of a highly skilled workforce to drive an industrial thrust unprecedented in the region.
Their co-educational nature also significantly helped to improve gender parity, to the benefit of girls. Their wide geographical spread also meant that children from rural areas now had the opportunity to attend secondary schools like never before.
This helped to facilitate upward social mobility for thousands of citizens regardless of race, class or religion.
In the 50-plus ensuing years, much can be said about the success/failure of these schools, but for all their deficiencies their significant contribution to the development of the country cannot be escaped.
As these former junior secondary schools (now 5-year secondary schools) across the country embark on celebrations marking a half century of their presence on the education landscape, we must also pay tribute to the pioneer teachers who took up the challenge to fill the large number of teaching positions suddenly created by the opening of these schools in quick succession.
Given the dearth of university graduates available at the time to fill these vacancies, the authorities turned to teachers in the primary schools who, courtesy of some additional training were responsible for making these schools a reality.
Many also accepted the challenge to venture into the newly created technical-vocational areas of agricultural science, industrial arts and home economics, providing students with the basic foundation to pursue more specialised technical-vocational subjects in the second two years at the senior comprehensive level and beyond.
Many of these teachers would later constitute to foundation membership/leadership of TTUTA, advocating for fundamental changes not just for the status of teachers but also for improvements to the education system.
Sadly, many have since passed on to the great beyond but the significance of their contributions and the indelible mark they have made in the cause of education must never be forgotten.
TTUTA pays tribute to all those pioneer teachers who gave birth to our country’s first thrust into the concept of universal secondary education, with all its social equalising benefits.
Tens of thousands of adults today, across the globe, would attest to the gratitude they feel having had the opportunity to attend a junior secondary school.
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