The future is in education

We all have our own misguided prescriptions to resolving the much regurgitated issue of guest workers. We do so with impunity often sporting our well oiled sense of amnesia that the genesis of what we now call a problem started with the obvious lack of local resolve years ago to slam the brakes on development.

Without fancy footing, the enemy in this instance is indigenous leadership and policymakers. In other words, we are our own worse enemy! The bubble years brought instant or windfall profits to these isles as to compromise any meaningful planning only to realize that our propensity for a prolonged honeymoon also royally brought with it more than our share of problems. As a result, out the window goes the real planning process from “planning for” serious eventualities to “plan by” the dictates of events which have overwhelmed all efforts to buckling down to preparing well thought-out plans.

I’ve long held the position that education is the real key to resolving our self-inflicted miseries to which we have, again, resorted to finding a scapegoat to absorb our virulent views on issues that we have allowed to break-out and flourish from the outset. Unfortunately, there are no longer scapegoats to vent our childish frustrations other than ourselves. And even with the realization that there are no more scapegoats, we still hang on to an old habit of blaming others for all that has gone wrong. Shameful, isn’t it?

Over the past 20 years, I’ve watched foreign businessmen send their kids to our schools, including tutoring classes after regular class to ensure that their children learn and understand their basic lessons before retiring for the day. They’ve spent most of their resources to empower their kids to learn lifetime skills that would take them beyond the years. I think they’ve been very successful at it. A Korean student, a valedictorian of his class at Marianas High School, is now a Ph.D. in either physics or chemistry or both. He now works for one of the biggest corporations being retained by the US Department of Defense for a certain purpose.

Over the years too, I’ve heard too many sorrowful stories that this indigenous person knows his practical job as a senior crew on a cruise boat or something or other. He’s capable of taking down an engine, put it back together, and get it running and humming in no time. But if he wants the real title of a boat captain, he must be able to read and write at least simple English and math. Ask him to write a justification why the need for an engine replacement and brings all discussions to an end. He can’t do it. Therefore, he’s passed by another person (often a guest worker) in terms of promotions.

Even a menial a job as cashier in one of the grocery stores, the person behind the cash register must be able to read prices on items for sale, punch them into the machine, totals it and dispose of his or her customer in the most courteous manner. As a waitress, you need to learn taking down orders before presenting them to the bartender or the chef in the kitchen. In the process, you must also be able to learn how to communicate so that your customers can leave the venue fully satisfied of the service and courtesy given them while dining at the restaurant where you work. A job at the warehouse also requires the basic skills of reading and writing.
In other words, you must know how to read basic English so that you can deliver goods given in both verbal and written instructions.

In short, our focus on policy must be concentrated on education from A-Z. Unless we aggressively address and resolve teaching our indigenous kids lifetime skills, there really isn’t that much in their future other than to build upon more prejudices against the more literate guest workers. Illiteracy is a problem here in both the private and public sectors especially among indigenous employees who were spoon fed for too long a time. Education is the sole key to equipping our local people marketable skills. Shortsighted and protectionist policies only aggravates old wounds.