Education Minister deems 2014 ‘a successful year’ for MoE

“ACCESS to education is at an all-time high, with more than 85% of our children enrolled in schools,” were the words of Education Minister Priya Manickchand as she deemed the year 2014 a success for the Ministry of Education.

In Guyana, she said, the education sector has seen consistent support from the administration, and has been changed enormously over the years.

With a budgetary allocation of $32.3B this year — the highest sectorial allocation — more focus has been placed on educating the nation, the minister affirmed.

In her annual assessment of the education sector, delivered at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Minister Manickchand pointed out that access to education is at an all-time high in sectors. Her explanation was that “with more than 85% students enrolled in schools, this is the highest rating across the Commonwealth Caribbean”.

She also said that the new age for admission to nursery schools has ensured more students are entered into the system. “With this age change,” she said, “it meant that 2,908 more children have been able to access education in the public 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 in order to be able to enter a school in September of that year.

It should be noted also, the Education Minister said, that the MoE has done much consultation with parents and teachers, and after noting the resources available to children, a policy decision was made and implemented.

“A literate population is going to drive a speedier development”, she said; and, as such, the implementation of this policy would assist our children earlier.

The Education Minister emphasised that primary schooling in Guyana has achieved the Millennium Development Goal, and all children in Guyana have access to primary education; but the secondary sector has not yet achieved this goal in every region, although it has so done in most, and work is ongoing towards achieving this across the board.

“We have achieved Universal Primary Education in Guyana, and (are) very close (to) achieving Universal Secondary”, she said.
“There are plans for the construction of three new secondary schools in 2015,” she said. 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.

Under the theme “Literate by Grade 4 through consistent home, school and community involvement”, Minister Manickchand is working towards making sure that each child is literate by Grade 4.

The five-year Literacy Strategic Plan was launched during literacy week this year.

Two new series of text books, which will empower nursery and primary aged students with more access to adequate materials, have been written. These are the Roraima series for nursery age children, and the Atlantic Readers for primary aged 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.

Manickchand explained that the text books were written by local experts who had the Guyanese/ Caribbean child in mind.
Core text books for Mathematics, English, Social Studies and Science have been procured for every child in all public primary schools. She explained that there are some schools that would not have received adequate amounts of the books, or had not yet received their quotas. “The ministry is working to have this corrected,” she explained.

She noted, too, that the relevant Mathematics and English text books were, for the first time in Guyana, procured for each student from Grades 7 to 11, and each should have their copies.

The Education Ministry has also purchased a quantity of furniture for all schools countrywide, so as to make the school environment more comfortable and conducive to work. It was explained that every school was instructed to make available to the ministry a list of the various furniture needed, and the procurement was done accordingly.

extracted from the Guyana Chronicle