Education access at all time high – 2014 a successful year for sector – Minister Manickchand
Written by Gina Webmasters, Published in News, Georgetown, GINA, December 12, 2014, Source - GINA
Paramakatoi Primary School, commisioned in November
The education sector in Guyana has seen consistent support from the administration and has changed enormously over the years. With a budgetary allocation of $32.3billion this year, the highest sectoral allocation, more focus has been placed on educating the nation. The year 2014 has been deemed a success by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand who noted that access to education is at an all time high.
Access
During her annual assessment of the sector, at the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD) today, the Minister pointed out that access to education is at an all time high in the nursery sector. With more than 85% students enrolled in schools, this is the highest rating across the Commonwealth Caribbean. The new age for admission to nursery schools has ensured more students are entered into the system.
Nursery education is not compulsory in Guyana. Prior to 2014, a child had to be born on March 31 of the year that the child turned three years, to be able to enter a school in September of that year. After many appeals from parents and intense consultations with head teachers and nursery teachers, and after noting the resources available to children, a policy decision was made to change the age for entrance into nursery schools.
This meant that 2,908 more children have been able to access education in the public system. In 2014, 13,882 children enrolled in the nursery system.
Primary schooling in Guyana has achieved the Millennium Development Goal and all children in Guyana have access to primary education. Whilst the secondary sector has not yet achieved this goal in every region, it has done so in most, and work is ongoing towards achieving this across the board.
To push this achievement, there are plans for the construction of three new secondary schools in 2015. These will be located at Good Hope and Yarrowkabra in Region 4, and Parfaite Harmonie in Region 3. These schools will cater for 2,600 more students. National consultations were held before the location and capacity were arrived at for these schools.
A literate population
In an effort to make all children literate by the end of Grade 4, and because of the prohibitive price of books, and because of not realising the desired results, two new series have been written. These include the Roraima series for nursery age children and the Atlantic Readers for primary aged children.
Nursery level children
The Roraima Readers include readers, work books, writing skills workbooks, flash cards, charts, and assessments. This series is currently being used while the Atlantic series will be introduced in the new year. These books were written by local experts and hoped to be used internationally but were written with the Guyanese/Caribbean child in mind.
The writers of the readers were guided by international literacy benchmarks and it is expected that children would meet these.
Core text books for Mathematics, English, Social Studies and Science have been procured for every child in all public primary schools. Additionally relevant Mathematics and English texts were procured for each student from Grades 7 to 11 and each should have their copies. These core texts have been procured for the first time in Guyana.
Education Strategic Plan
The Education Strategic Plan (ESP) in Guyana expired in 2013, but work continued in 2014 on mapping out a new five- year plan. In designing the 2013/2018 plan, a wide variety of consultations was carried out with stakeholders. As a result, the ESP focused on achieving the learning levels of education for all sub groups.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand, and President Donald Ramotar check out the construction ongoing at the Kato secondary school, Region 8
Although the level of enrollment cannot be assessed until the release of the new census results by age and communities, Guyana seems to have received a respectable education level.
The learning outcomes which are of concern for the primary sector are literacy and numeracy, followed by science and technology. However there are challenges in two sub groups; at risk and vulnerable children and special needs children. The first priority for these sub groups is to bring children into school and make them stay. However, once in school, the need will be to maximise the students’ learning achievements.
Among the outcomes targeted in the new ESP are: improving performance of government departments responsible for assessing ESP priorities, establishing an accountability system which creates improved student learning ability, improving the quality of school facilities, quality of teaching, and the quality of the curriculum, the availability of teaching and learning materials, and the alignment of materials with the curricula of training programmes with the revised curricula.
The Education Minister observed that any five-year plan in any sector and country is particularly vulnerable to events beyond the sector’s control. This includes political instability and changes in Government, even within the same ruling party. The continuous support for the sector by the current administration is a major priority. She stated that the cost of the plan is expected to be revealed by mid-January 2015.
Teacher training
There are 15,055 teachers at the Cyril Potter College of Education, spread across four programmes in nine administrative regions. The two-year associate degree programme is offered to coastal students, from Anna Regina, Linden, Georgetown, New Amsterdam, Rose Hall, Vreed-en-Hoop and Turkeyen. In September 2014 over 513 persons enrolled for this programme.
For the trained teachers certificate three-year degree programme, 69 students from Moruca, Mabaruma, Aishalton and Lethem enrolled.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand speaking on the sector's performance for 2014
The teacher upgrade two-year programme had an enrollment of 250, some of whom are accessing satellite training in Moruca, Mabaruma, Port Kaituma and Upper and Lower Mazaruni.
Teacher training will also include training for teachers in the technical field on a one-year programme. This new programme was set up for teachers in technical institutes and Technical Vocational Education programmes. The first batch was enrolled in June 2014, and over 350 are expected to graduate in December 2014.
Capacity building, evaluation and improving facilities were also focused on under the Guyana Improving Teacher Education Programme. The number of additionally qualified primary teachers and others has exceeded the targets set.
Parental support
With the administration being keen to support groups and parents, it has ensured that programmes are put in place. Thus the projects covering fortified snacks, hot meals, uniform assistance, free exercise and text books along with the new cash grant programme launched targets parents.
Advancing secondary education
The focus on secondary education will see capacity strengthening of schools’ Mathematics teachers’ nationwide along with the expansion of facilities. Focusing on secondary education will see teachers being trained and standards established. The latter will be set through public consultations from which a report will be prepared. Seventy-one (71) public consultations have been held in 2014 and are to be reviewed in order for a report to be prepared on the recommendations.
Children of Kwebanna in their classroom
Education Bill
The Education Bill tabled in the National Assembly is the first of its kind for Guyana and will focus on children and teachers’ rights and responsibilities. The rights of Parent Teachers’ Association along with responsibilities of Ministries will also be focused on in the Bill which will also target private schools in Guyana. The Bill however, got stuck in the current parliamentary fracas.
Children of Assakata, Region One benefitting from the hot meal programme
Cash grant
The cash grant project which has been distributed under the ‘Because We Care’ initiative has seen parents of public school children receiving $10,000 for each child.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds overseeing the cash grant distribution at the National Park
The project has seen 135,969 vouchers distributed with 135,689 being encashed. A total sum of $1.6B has since been distributed with an expected completion date for the project expected by December 13.
The grant will be continued annually and will be audited, and money remaining will be returned to the Consolidated Fund. Consultations before the programme began had indicated that parents wanted to receive cash through the Western Union outlets.
Source - http://www.gina.gov.gy/home/in...minister-manickchand
