Education Sector Plan 2014-2018 and Professional Standards for Teachers in 2015 to be ready soon

By Rebecca Ganesh-Ally, January 21, 2015, Source = Guyana Chronicle

THE Education Ministry is working currently on the publication of its Education Sector Plan 2014-2018 and the finalising and publication of Professional Standards for Teachers in 2015. Education Minister, Priya Manickchand has said that the ministry is dedicated to ensuring that all citizens of Guyana, regardless of age, race or creed, physical or mental disability, or socio-economic status, are given the best possible opportunity to achieve their full potential through equal access to quality education.

Minister Manickchand was speaking at a recent press conference at the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD) in Kingston.

The Education Minister related that “the commitment to quality and equity in education, with no barriers in access to anyone, is clear in this new Plan.” The 2014-2018 National Education Sector Plan covers all levels of education, except university education. It consists of the detailed action plans of each unit or department that must take actions in order to meet the targets of the strategy.

“This plan continues the focus on improving the quality of education that was outlined in previous plans, but it places much more emphasis on accountability by continuously monitoring results throughout the plan period,” Manickchand explained.

COUNTRYWIDE CONSULTATIONS
The ministry undertook to establish a draft Professional Standards for Teachers and consequentially conducted countrywide consultations with key stakeholders.

“More than 55 consultations were held where teachers, parents, students and other stakeholders provided their views on the contents of the document,” the Minister explained.

Manickchand noted that “the Ministry of Education is proud to report that the consultations were extremely useful in bringing us to the point where we are preparing to officially publish, sensitise and implement the Professional Standards for Teachers in a few weeks.”

Text Books
“We continue to place a lot of emphasis on the equitable provision of learning resources to our students. Much effort has gone into creating and developing our own learning kits and packages and importantly, our own text books and work books,” the Minister said.

The Minister had said during the commissioning of the St. Agnes Primary School in September 2014 that “all our children in every primary school across this country should have text books for Mathematics, English, Science and Social Studies in their book bags.” She explained that over the last two years the ministry has procured books specifically to meet the needs of primary school students.

In 2013 and 2014 Roraima Readers Series and Atlantic Readers Series were developed and written. During this quarter, the Minister related that “we anticipate that we would be able to publish these books with their accompanying workbooks and that we would begin usage on a national scale in September 2015. “It is important to note that these books were developed by a group of dedicated Guyanese educators,” she added. --- (By Rebecca Ganesh-Ally)