8.46 Worsening economic conditions over the past decade have made it increasingly difficult for the country to maintain the high levels of educational investment recorded in the 1970s and, as a result, real government spending has declined. In addition, recurrent spending on education, as a proportion of total recurrent public spending, shows sharp declines since 1988 despite growing public concern over education quality. In 1984, 17.6% of public recurrent spending went to education. The percentage declined to 14.5% in 1987 and 6.7% in 1990, rising again to 9.1% in the 1991 budget. The 1991 allocation is about half the proportions allocated in Jamaica, Belize or Grenada. Education spending in Guyana, as a percent of the GDP declined from 6.0% in 1984 to 2.4% in 1990.

8.50 Educational Inputs. The availability of textbooks has been consistently associated with higher student achievement in developing countries. Under Guyana's decentralize education system the MOE retains responsibility for text book provision. Budget allocations for textbooks and education materials have been greatly reduced over the past decade and are totally inadequate given that almost all textbooks must be imported from European publishers. Field visits to primary schools showed that In many cases the teacher used the only text book. At secondary school there were generally 5 or 6 students to each book meaning that teachers were unable to assign homework. Other educational materials are almost completely absent from classrooms and learning occurs through repetition and rote learning.

8.51 Although teacher/student ratios have risen in recent years they remain at acceptable levels, averaging about 40 students per teacher in primary schools and 35 students per teacher in secondary schools. However, low pay scales and poor working conditions have encouraged better qualified teachers to move out of the sector leading to a heavy reliance on untrained and unqualified teachers. Thus, while student/teacher ratios continue to be relatively low, the quality of the teaching force is declining. There are significant differences between Regions in terms of the quality of their teaching force at the primary level; only 19 percent of teachers in the municipal Georgetown area are untrained compared to 69 percent in Regions I and 9 and 74 percent in Region 8.

8.52 Investment in the rehabilitation and expansion of school facilities has been extremely limited over the past two decades with the result that school facilities are dilapidated and very crowded. Many students do not have access to a desk or writing space and in most schools three or more different classes will share one room, meaning that noise levels are high and teachers must compete with each other to be heard by their students. Few schools have libraries and where these exist the books are old and in poor condition. Sanitation facilities are generally completely inadequate.

8.55 Dropout and repetition rates at the primary level are not particularly high in Guyana; approximately 11% of the first grade enrollments are repeaters and dropout rates range from 3.2% in the first grade to 7.8% in the final grade. The primary cohort survival rates Is around 80%. However, student learning, as measured by the secondary school entrance examination is low. Almost half of thestudents are unable to answer one third of the question successfully. If the test scores are adjusted to correct for possible guessing, 50% of students score less than one sixth of the marks available. Pass rates in science and social science subjects have dropped during the past decade.

8.56 Daily attendance rate at primary schools are extremely low In Guyana, averaging 68% nationally. There are, however, wide variations across regions; attendance rates are close to 80% in the Georgetown municipal area but drop to around 50% in Region l. Attendance rates generally reflect the quality of education offered; poorly trained teachers, limited textbooks and teaching materials, overcrowded classes and a poorly developed curriculum are all factors commonly associated with low attendance rates and are clearly issues needing to be addressed inGuyana.

8 58 Secondary school examination results show very clearly that student learning has declined sharply in recent years. Students in the secondary academic track aim to write the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) or General Certificate of Education (CCE) examinations in their fifth year, but only write the examinations if their teachers think they have a chance of passing.In Guyana, the proportion of the 15 - 19 year old age cohort entering the examination has dropped from 16.5% In 1965 to 4.9% in 1984. This is the reverse of trends in other English speaking Caribbean countries where the proportion of students entering the examination has more than doubled. Moreover, the percentage of Guyanese CXC examination candidates achieving passes in the core subjects has fallen sharply in recent years. The 1984 pass rate InEnglish of 23% dropped to 13% in1990. In mathematics, student pass rates dropped from 20% to 15% over the same period. Guyana, which ranked third out of seven Caribbean countries in terms of its student pass rate in 1965, now ranks last.

8.59 Students enrolled in the community / vocational schools write the Secondary Schools Proficiency Examination and these scores are even more discouraging. Results for 1986, for example, show that in mathematics students, on average, scored 12.7 of a possible 40 points, only 2.7 points above the chance score (the score possible from random guessing). In Reasoning and Science, the average student scored 15 out of 40 possible points, 4.9 and 6.3 points above the chance scores, respectively.

8.61 Equity Issues. The woeful state of education enrollment, expenditure, and performance data in Guyana precludes a rigorous analysis of equity issues. These data are unreliable at the Regional level and no household income data exist to permit an assessment of equality of educational opportunity. However, the partial data which exist permit two conclusions: (i) that there is a relatively high level of participation at the primary level and,
(ii) that there are serious inequities in education inputs between the Regions. The quality of the teaching force differs significantly across Regions with the proportion of untrained teachers ranging from 19 to 74 percent in different Regions. In addition, field visits confirmed that schools in smaller urban and rural areas are less likely to have textbooks and other educational materials.