Guyana’s education is at its best – Manickchand

May 27, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under News, Source

“Guyana’s education system is the best it has ever been” declared Education Minister Priya Manickchand with pride, noting that equitable access to education, improved results, an increased number of trained teachers and outstanding performance regionally are evidence of this achievement.

However, Manickchand believes that the education sector could achieve much more. As such, as the country celebrates these successes, efforts are being made to take Guyana and its students to the next level.

Education Minister, Priya Manickchand

“We are nowhere near we want to be…We want to do better…We know we are capable of doing better, we know our kids are capable of producing better; our teachers can deliver a better curriculum,” she added.

According to the Minister, the Ministry has a responsibility to meet the needs of Guyana today, as well as preparing young people to meet the needs of Guyana tomorrow. Therefore, a comprehensive holistic plan of how the Ministry will deliver quality education from pre-nursery to tertiary is necessary.

She emphasized that making citizens productive and relevant for the labour market demands- not only in Guyana- are critical functions of the sector. She added that the Ministry is pleased to see so much interest from stakeholders as is evident from the fact that ever so often, the Ministry is commented on in letters, editorials, articles and commentaries. Emphasizing Government’s commitment to the sector, Manickchand reiterated that her Ministry receives the largest slice of the National Budget. This is because Government is cognizant that quality education would result in economic growth, which will benefit anyone.

Manickchand acknowledged that the sector needs to improve performance in the areas of Mathematics and English. However, it cannot express dissatisfaction and accept the situation as it is. The Ministry is adamant that dissatisfaction must be translated into corrective action to change the numbers.

To initiate this change the Ministry needs to see the training of more teachers so they could deliver the curriculum effectively. Already, over 72 percent of teachers in the classroom are trained. In addition, students’ attendance need to increase and classrooms need to be adequately equipped with learning materials.

Referring to an Inter American Development Bank brochure, the Minister emphasized the need to have high expectations in the sector. She noted that top performing education systems need to set ambitious standards in terms of curriculum, teacher training, and educational materials.

Another area the Bank identified as one of the five dimensions of success is having a student centric education system ready to learn. Manickchand said that the Ministry would reveal shortly its new Early Childhood Education Development programme. This initiative would see the sector building on strides made over the last five years. It would see the Ministry reforming and tweaking to fix the flaws in the system.

She pointed out that the Ministry has written its own text books relevant to Guyana but which satisfy international standards and benchmarks.