Registration for first and sixth form students will begin at secondary schools countrywide this week.
According to notices placed at schools, students who have recently received their National Grade Six Assessment results can start registering at the schools they were placed at between September 30th and October 2nd. To gain access to the admission form for the respective school, parents are advised to visit the school’s website and they will be contacted in order to finalize the registration process by October 6th. Students registering for sixth form are also advised to follow suit.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has said that while the Education Ministry never made an announcement to have schools start registration, some schools went ahead. She said that this move was applauded and encouraged.
Registration started in August and ended before schools were to be reopened in September. Parents were able to register their child or children by contacting the schools by telephone or visiting and in some cases online registration was done. Once students were registered, information regarding class teachers and booklists that would be needed for classes as well as what platforms would be used for virtual classes and timetables were provided for through group chats which parents were added to, or through direct contact with teachers.
Since March, when the first COVID-19 case was detected in Guyana, the Education Ministry had all schools closed to prevent the spread of the disease in the classrooms. The schools have remained closed since, except for during the sitting of the NGSA and Caribbean Examinations Council regional exams. These were written in July. Students were also asked to return to school, while following strict COVID-19 guidelines, for some two weeks prior to the first exam sitting.
However, while schools have been shut for almost six months, some teachers took the initiative to continue educating learners via online platforms and sending worksheets to students for them to work while at home. This was mainly a teacher-led initiative and the effort was praised by the Ministry as no formal instruction for continued teaching had been announced.
In August, Manickchand finally announced that the schools would be reopened but not physically. During a virtual announcement she said that after meeting with stakeholders, it was decided to have the schools reopened so learning can continue. The Guyana Learning Channel was revamped and educational programmes were selected to be broadcast. Radio broadcasts are also being used to ensure that students who didn’t have access to television sets would also be able to benefit from this initiative. For areas where connectivity to internet or online classrooms, television or radio was available, the students have access to worksheets and workbooks, which the ministry has provided for the students. These can be uplifted at the various schools and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils.
However, this decision was met with a backlash as the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) has argued that the Ministry did not consider teachers’ capabilities and the Amerindian Peoples Association has suggested that the ministry was not catering for the disconnection which hinterland and rural area students would face.
But Manickchand has repeatedly explained that while the Ministry is aware of the many challenges being faced by both teachers and students, the Ministry needed a plan to recover from learning loss. She said that the blended approach is not perfect but its better than doing nothing.