STRANGE! THE PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS, USING PAPER AND PEN, DURING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY HIGH SCHOOLS, DOES NOT ACTUALLY TEACH MUCH OTHER THAN ACADEMICALLY; ANYTHING TO DO WITH PROBLEM SOLVING IN A PRACTICAL SENSE, FOR THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS OUR GRADUATING YOUNG PEOPLE NEED IN BELIZE.
What can you say, when a young boy, who has left primary school in grade 4, to help his mother earn money to rear the rest of his siblings? From eight years old I've watched this boy down on the highway selling tortillas, tamales, and other food stuffs. He's tried all kinds of things. Right now he is about age thirteen and was here the other day to buy the coconuts from my two producing trees in the backyard. He pays me .25 cents each for green coconuts. He bought $20 worth. I asked him what he is doing with them? He told me, he is putting the coconut water in plastic bags, with a bit of shredded coconut in it and marketing them to the local supermarkets. Said he was grossing about $200 a day. But having trouble getting coconuts. He was unable to fill the daily demand. He gets $1, a bag of coconut water.
His older brother apparently has been able to get an old pickup truck, so they go around looking for coconut trees. I've got a 16 year old boy neighbor, with no schooling, trying different things. I've been teaching him carpentry. Lives with his sister, as they have no parents anymore. He also is learning fast, picking up street knowledge.
The thing is; these boys are learning to solve practical problems out of necessity and by trial and error. They may not know how to read and write, or do arithmetic in their head, but they understand profit and loss. They also understand problem solving by practical trial and error.
So what is it then, in our educational curriculum that does not teach practical problem solving via the trial and error method in the market place? Why is Belize who needs entrepreneurs badly for tens of thousands of world wide opportunities in making money, cannot produce problem solving students and young people, via the practical trial and error method of learning? How to fix our educational system to serve the needs of the young people and our country?
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1 comment:
Free education is the most obvious fix. But if we want to think a bit more out of the box there is a lot work that most be done by the minister of education. The promotion of education in all districts of this country is a necessity and a demand. This educational system is as disfuctional as a baby without its milk. ;)
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