Support of opposition needed to advance education – Minister Manickchand
May 2, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under News, Source
An appeal for the support from the parliamentary opposition to help advance the delivery of education has been made by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand. This move, the Minister said, is one that could see those within the political arena, both Government and opposition, being poised to collectively “treat Guyanese well…it gives us an opportunity to help prepare Guyana’s tomorrow today.”
Education Minister Priya Manickchand
Speaking in the National Assembly during the recent budget debate, the Minister said that although collaboration would be ideal “…we will do it alone if we have to, but we really want the support of the opposition; their supporters would expect they would do what is right for their children and so while we would do it alone, as we have been doing for the last 20 years, we would really appreciate the members of the opposition.”
In further emphasising the importance of collaboration, Manickchand alluded to the wealth of knowledge that could be drawn from persons such as her fellow Member of Parliament, A Partnership for National Unity’s Amna Ally.
“She has been a head teacher for many years; she has the experience that I don’t have…I want to hear from her, but wanting to hear from her is a contribution to what the Government’s programme is… I would like to hear from other teachers and parents in the opposition…”
The Education Minister made reference to a quote by now deceased anti-apartheid activist and former South African leader, Nelson Mandela, that “education is the most powerful weapon in which you can change the world.” Further, she noted another quote by Malcolm X, whom she dubbed another wise man, which states that “education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
“These are two people who are world renowned and whose wisdom no sensible person would question…These are people telling us clearly if you want to prepare a country for next year or the next 20 years, invest in education…These people are telling us clearly that the most powerful weapon to change Guyana would be education and here is a Government that understands that and invests most (of its) money in the sector of education.”
And as part of efforts to invest in education, the Minister said that moves are being made to ensure that equity is realised even in the far-flung regions, an undertaking that will see the Ministry venturing into the hinterland to put in place an education improvement project.
“Over the last five years alone we have created over 400 new places for students in dormitories and that is allowing over 400 students every single year to access an education that they could not have been able to access before.”
“We are in the best place that we have ever been, but we can do better in certain areas. So what are we doing? We are studying with the people of the hinterland…so we will be going village to village talking to parents and teachers and students about what are the gaps…”
“You have a school but does your school have trained teachers? If the answer is no, do we have housing to put trained teachers in? If the answer is no, then how do we build the housing? Do you have textbooks? Do you have exercise books? Is your school feeding (programme) working? Do we have space in the dormitory to accommodate the students who are coming from far-flung areas?” questioned the Education Minister.
She disclosed that moves have been streamlined to allow the Ministry to shortly put in place a strategic project to further improve the delivery of education.
“We will begin that shortly, to be implemented as soon as we would have completed our study. It would make for a great headline that we are ready right now, because we have a significant portion of the information we need, but it would be undemocratic if we did not hear first from the people of those villages what it is they would want to see happen too.”
