PPP exposes APNU’s flip flop on the education sector
Written by, Wednesday, 04 September 2013 00:01, Source - Guyana Chronicle
THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) says it finds the call for a Commission of Inquiry into the public education system by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) misplaced and generally designed to politically grandstand on such a crucial sector.
“We are fully aware that the education system is not perfect; hence the many efforts, inclusive of forging partnerships with critical stakeholders to improve problem areas,” the party said in a statement yesterday.
In fact, it was made public during the 2013 budget debate in the National Assembly that a new five-year strategic plan for the sector is being crafted, taking into consideration the complexities of the challenges and efforts to overcome them in the shortest possible timeframe.
This however, cannot hide the revolutionary strides of Guyana’s education sector over the past two decades.
According to the PPP, for the first time in our history, universal access to primary education has been achieved and efforts are underway towards repeating this feat in the area of secondary education.
The party alluded to the fact that Guyana’s efforts have been internationally recognised with U.N. Head Mr. Ban Ki Moon selecting President Donald Ramotar to be a member of the United Nations Steering Committee to examine the world’s education system and make recommendations for its improvement.
Testimony to the commitment of the PPP in this regard is the fact that from 2008 to 2013, some 139 billion dollars was allocated to finance the National Education Strategic plan.
Over $1.2 billion was spent last year on the National School Feeding programme benefitting 64,000 students, close to 300 million was spent on the national school uniform project benefitting 190,000 students in nursery, primary and secondary schools. Efforts continue to train our teachers in several subject areas, in fact close to 3000 were trained in ICT last year.
Added to this is the One Laptop per Family Project and the Fibre Optic project which aims to provide internet access to each and every school which will revolutionise access to educational material, research and training, the PPP stated.
It also alluded to the possibility of virtual classrooms where highly specialised teachers could access classrooms from all across Guyana which will now be possible with the advent of this project.
These, the PPP said, are just some of the initiatives which will revolutionise Guyana’s education system and provide equitable access to quality education for all of our children.
How can APNU explain their Shadow Minister of Education, Ms. Amna Ally praising the Minister of Education Mrs. Priya Manickchand for the sterling work she has been doing in the sector during the budget debate and now, a few months after, the very Ms. Ally is saying the education sector is in crisis, the PPP questioned.
“The confusion is even greater when on one hand Ms. Ally during the budget debate of 2013, chastised the PPP/C Government for building new schools across Guyana in our efforts to provide easier access to education for children of all communities, but then on the other hand, APNU’s leader Mr. David Granger sitting right next to Ms. Ally on August 23rd 2012 attacked Government for not building new schools fast enough, where he referred to the dropout rates in communities because completing secondary schools in some areas usually take students far from the communities where they reside.”
“The APNU leadership needs to make up their mind on what their position really is as these contradicting statements and grandstanding by no stretch of the imagination will benefit our children or the education sector,” the PPP declared.
