Initial Broadcast Date: January 4, 1972
30 minutes – Color
In a second program devoted to Guyana, Black Journal focuses on that country’s educational system as an instrument in nation-building. Visits to various Guyanese classrooms and interviews with Prime Minister Forbes Burnam, Minister of Education Shirley Field Ridley, educators and students, reveal that concepts of black pride, confidence, self-help and national cooperation are the ABC’s of Guyana’s educational philosophy.
Where colonial Guyana sought merely to produce a work force for its masters, the newly-independent Guyana seeks to produce a people with the adequate skills and philosophies needed for nation-building. Therefore its educational curricula include economics, science, technology, agriculture, black history, and black culture.
To involve the masses in economic efforts and reinforce the self-help standard, the Guyanese government encourages through its educational program the growth of local products, which will help to eliminate all dependence on foreign aid, and reduce imports. Hence, according to Minister Ridley, children learn that there is nothing wrong “with putting your hands in the mud” -- a concept once repugnant to those who sought to copy the values of their European master. They are also taught the value of working together cooperatively – a necessary lesson for a nation whose economy depends on a system of cooperatives.
This factor also helps to ease tensions between Guyanese of African heritage and those of Indian heritage, who have historically been at odds. Prime Minister Burnam notes that “animosities have subsided since my government took over” and considers ethnic origin incidental to national unity.
Guyanese are made more aware of their African heritage through a program called Ascria which provides them with information about Africa, black heroes, and cultural norms. This serves to restore black pride and confidence, which colonial masters attempted to destroy.
The program also goes to a high school in Buxton built in a cooperative effort by the townspeople. It is owned and managed by blacks who have replaced the traditional school bell with an African drum and the morning hymn with an African chant.
Black Journal also speaks to Tom Feelings, an American artist and educator who has gone to Guyana to illustrate textbooks for children. Influenced by the extent of cooperation and collective efforts in that country, Feelings used other black Americans to come to Guyana and other such countries “to pool our resources and build our own life.”
In a “Grapevine” segment on the same program, a brief film made by students of the NET Television Training School will be shown.
“Black Journal” is a production of NET Division, Educational Broadcasting Corporation
Executive producer: Tony Brown
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