The shortage of history teachers could result in future generations having insufficient knowledge of Surinamese history. This is the warning issued by NDP parliamentarian Silvana Afonsoewa. According to her, urgent investment must be made in educators to prevent students from missing out on important knowledge about their own country.
“Soon, people will not know the history of Suriname because there are no history teachers,” Afonsoewa said on Sunday during the programme Retrospectie. The parliamentarian is concerned about the consequences of the continuing teacher shortage. “In five years, we will have a society that does not know our history because there was a shortage of history teachers at school,” she stressed.
The shortage of educators is not limited to the subject of history. Minister Dirk Currie of Education has previously indicated that there is a shortage of teachers at various levels of education, ranging from primary to secondary education.
Successive governments have failed
Afonsoewa also criticised the years-long lack of investment in school buildings and classrooms. According to her, successive governments have insufficiently taken into account the growth of the student population, meaning that there is currently no suitable place in education available for every child. “Every government is late, and this one is late too. So it continues,” she stated.
According to the parliamentarian, the government should have planned ahead for years by analysing birth rates and, on that basis, determining the future need for schools and classrooms. In her view, the current shortage could largely have been prevented in this way. “But no one is looking at it,” she remarked.
Children must be removed from the rotation system
Although Afonsoewa is critical of the education policy of successive governments, she acknowledges that the current government has allocated funds for the construction of schools and additional classrooms. According to her, this is an attempt to catch up on the backlog in education infrastructure.
However, the parliamentarian believes that action must be taken more quickly, especially for students who, due to the shortage of classroom space, attend school under a rotation system. As a result, some children can attend school only two or three days a week. Afonsoewa wants this situation to end as soon as possible, so that all children can once again fully participate in education. “This is not the fault of one government or one party. Everyone has failed to get the children into the education process,” the parliamentarian said.
