EDUCATION MINISTER, Priya Manickchand, has said that the Mathematics and English pilot project which ran over a four-month period of January to May this year facilitated a significant increase in Grades One to Three passes in 18 of the schools in which it was implemented. Speaking of the results of this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams at a recent press conference, the minister noted that “even in the face of the dismal results we’ve gotten across the region (Caribbean), Guyana has reason to celebrate and may even have some lessons that we can share.”

Ms. Manickchand said that the overall pass rate in the pilot schools was 39.85% in Mathematics, and 52.05% in English Language. She noted that not only did these schools perform better than they did last year, but their pass rates in these two subjects were above the national and regional averages. Some of the schools which saw significant improvement were: West Demerara Secondary (from 62.6% in 2011 to 80.53% in 2012), Berbice high School (from 12.8% in 2011 to 51.56% in 2012) and Christ Church Secondary (from 36.4% in 2011 to 61.91% in 2012).
The minister noted that the pilot project was implemented in 36 schools from every administrative region in the country, and these schools were not the top schools, but were the schools which were performing poorly.  According to her, the pilot schools had a total of a little over 7,000 students, and additional resources and enhanced supervision were given to them.

The Government of Guyana ensured that each child had the relevant text books, calculators, geometry sets, graph paper, and study guides, as well as extra lessons and classes. They also engaged the assistance of volunteers who aided in the supervision of how the programmes were working, such as ensuring that each syllabus was finished, and that extra classes were being held.
Ms. Manickchand said that during the course of the pilot project, she visited each of the schools on several occasions, and met with the students and their parents. She noted that while some of the pilot schools showed significant improvement, there were also some that did not do better, and some that even did worse. She attributed this to the fact that in some schools, there was a very small turn out of parents. The minister said that “everybody has to hold hands here to make sure our children do well.” She noted that in one of the schools which had a very small turn out of parents, the pass rate was only 2%.

The Education Minister said that private schools were also called in and told what was expected of them. According to her, the administrators for these schools were given past papers and told to photocopy them for distribution to the students.

Ms. Manickchand said that if there was so much improvement over such a short period of time that this project was carried out, then there’s great promise for even more improvement over a one-year period.
“The overall aim of the programme is to increase the number of candidates securing passes in Mathematics and English Language,” Ms. Manickchand reiterated.

Source: https://guyanachronicle.com/2012/08/14/mathematics-english-pilot-project-contributes-to-significant-increase-in-grades-one-to-three-csec-passes

THE Ministry of Education in a press release yesterday condemned the burning of the One-Mile Primary School at Linden, the largest primary school in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Bebrice), which left 830 Guyanese children school-less. 
According to the press release, the burning down of the school will not only affect the innocent children, but it will create grave hardship for all those involved. “It will be challenging for the ministry to place the more than 830 children into schools that are already filled” the press release noted.

It also stated that it will be challenging for those schools that will now be forced to take in the children, as “all the schools taking in and the children attending will certainly suffer as they will be accommodating far beyond their capacity and hence teaching far below their maximum.”
The parents of the children of One- Mile Primary School will now be faced with the burden of finding transportation and other money to send their children to other schools, as the one closest to their home was burnt to the ground.
“As we know, schools are not built overnight, so this is a most tragic circumstance that will prevail for as long as the children are forced to attend these other schools. We will stand with our education officers, head teachers and teachers, parents and students throughout what will surely be a most difficult period” the press release stated.
The ministry is urging “every peace loving person and citizen who recognises education as a necessary tool for poverty alleviation” to immediately condemn the burning down of schools.
The press release noted that the right to peaceful protest is enshrined in the constitution, but “no person in their right mind, however, can argue that to burn bridges, block roads and burn schools constitute peaceful protest.”

Source: https://guyanachronicle.com/2012/08/13/education-ministry-vehemently-condemns-razing-of-one-mile-primary-in-linden-830-students-now-school-less

…lambastes politicians advancing “wild, undemocratic agendas”

 “To burn a school is to remove the most necessary tool of poverty alleviation…To have burnt One Mile Primary is to attempt to condemn all the children attending that school to a life of poverty” – Education Minister  

Education Minister Priya Manickchand yesterday swiftly condemned the torching of a Primary School in Region 10, saying that no person in their right mind can argue that to burn bridges, block roads and burn schools constitute peaceful protest.
According to reports, some-time around 03:00hrs yesterday, ‘arsonist(s)’ successfully managed to set ablaze, the One Mile Primary School.

Manickchand has reported that the burnt out primary school houses some 830 students.
There are reports that two persons have been arrested in connection with the blaze.
Manickchand in her immediate condemnation of the burning of the school, says that “every peace loving person and citizen who recognizes education as a necessary tool for poverty alleviation must condemn the burning of schools immediately…There can be no ifs and buts and conditions…This is wrong, will affect our innocent children, will create grave hardship for all involved, and must be unreservedly condemned.”

The newly installed Education Minister says that it will be challenging for the Ministry to place the more than 830 displaced children into schools that are already filled.

The new school year will begin on September 1.

She stressed too that “It will certainly be challenging on the pockets of their poor parents to find transportation and other money to send these now school-less children to other schools given that the one closest to their home has been burnt to the ground.”
The Minister lamented what she called an inevitable, additional strain “on the other schools which will now be forced to take in these children.”
She stressed that all the schools taking in will be accommodating far beyond their capacity and hence teachers will be tasked way beyond their limits.
Minister Manickchand says that Linden has the most trained teachers in Guyana with 93 per cent of the primary level being trained.

She says that even in light of this, “instead of the schools focusing on quality delivery they will now have to focus on mass and on counteracting the challenges posed by increased numbers.”
As such she says that much more than the said 830 ‘One Mile’ Primary kids “will suffer.”
She says too that schools are not built overnight, “so this is a most tragic circumstance that will prevail for as long as the children are forced to attend these other schools.”
Manickchand vowed to stand resolute “with our education officers, head teachers and teachers, parents and students throughout what will surely be a most difficult period.”

Manickchand in her appeal said that “We are failing at the Ministry to understand how to burn a school could be determined to be an effective way to protest reform for the payment of electricity rates.”
She joined in saying that the Education Ministry believes that the people of Linden are being used by the politicians “who do not so much care about Lindeners as they do about advancing their own wild and undemocratic agendas…To burn a school is to remove the most necessary tool of poverty alleviation…To have burnt One Mile Primary is to attempt to condemn all the children attending that school to a life of poverty.”

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/08/13/manickchand-scorches-one-mile-primary-arsonists/

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has finally responded to critics, asserting that her Ministry’s ambitious programme to improve Mathematics and English at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination has been heartening.  The Minister has revealed that while the performances in the two subject areas have declined Caribbean-wide, the 26 schools in which the Ministry had piloted the improvement project had in fact realised improved performances.

The project was introduced soon after the Minister assumed the post of Education Minister in December of last year. The ambitious move spanned a mere four months and saw Government injecting in excess of $87M to the Education Ministry to facilitate the project. “I saw a lot of criticism in the press but we (the Ministry) did not respond to any of them…” said the Minister who noted that even though it was such a short period a notable difference was observed.

Minister Manickchand had earlier this year insisted that her Ministry was on a mission to reap value for money at the 2012 CSEC examinations. She revealed even then that a review of current capital type investment suggested that “we are not seeing the corresponding rise in grades in the two particular subject areas of Maths and English.”  She asserted too that despite the fact that the Education Ministry is one of the largest Ministries in terms of resources, the results have not been proportionate to the investments made.

“The problem with that is very simple: if our children can’t matriculate with Maths and English then it means there are going to be a lot of doors closed to them…” the Minister had lamented.
It was against this very background that she saw it necessary to introduce the ambitious programme.   Among the schools that were included in the project were:  Abram Zuil, Anna Regina and Aurora (Region Two); West Demerara, Zeeburg, Patentia, Leonora, Stewartville (Region Three); Annandale, Covent Garden, Bladen Hall, Hope (Region Four); East Ruimveldt, Christ Church, North Georgetown, Central, Brickdam, North Ruimveldt, Richard Ishmael (Georgetown), Bushlot, Mahaicony, Bygeval, Woodley Park Primary Tops (Region Five); J. C. Chandisingh, Tagore Memorial, , New Amsterdam Multilateral, Berbice High, Skeldon Line Path  (Region Six); Three Miles (Region Seven), St. Ignatius (Region Nine), MacKenzie High, Christianburg and Silver City (Region 10).
Manickchand pointed out that while in the area of English there have been indications of acceptable results over the years, the subject area of Maths, over the past 10 years, reflected a mere 10 per cent increase in the pass rate from about 20 per cent to 30 per cent last year.

In introducing the programme last year, the Minister noted that “the fact remains that we are seeing some countries having 31 and 38 per cent, but all under 40 per cent, and this is no comfort to me because at the end of the day, what it means is that we have 70 per cent of our children not having some of the doors we have here opened to them.”
She questioned, “what is the point of developing Guyana or making our country move from a low income, heavily in-debted poor country, to a middle income developing country if the new opportunities arising in this country are going to be out of the reach of our next generation?”

According to the Minister, the rationale behind striving to improve the rate of performance in the subject areas was geared at ensuring that “our children can go on to universities, whether local or foreign, and be able to access certain jobs. If they don’t have Maths and English, then in a sense we are failing them and certainly we are failing our dear country…” The Minister alluded to the National Pledge, pointing to the fact that the whole theme of the pledge is that we will do what is good for Guyana.

“That is not to say that we think teachers have not been doing what is good, but somehow or the other the system has not been able to get those grades up and this for me is not only a matter of concern but almost a challenge or a red flag in front of a bull…We have the potential to make changes and we can combine the potential we have to see actual results for Maths and English if we could improve the grades of at least 1,500 of our children.”

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/08/13/education-minister-heartened-with-results-of-math-english-pilot-programme/

It is refreshing to see ministerial initiative embedded in a results-oriented framework and targeted at enhancing service to the public.  There isn’t nearly enough of it and the truth is that ministerial impact has been overshadowed for the last 20 years by the command and control style of the PPP executive both in the Office of the President and Freedom House. 

Education Minister Ms Priya Manickchand is really at the starting point of what can be an enlightening and beneficial intervention to improve the performance of CSEC candidates in the critical subjects of Mathematics and English. Hard questions however still have to be asked and answered about this project.

Poor performance in these two subjects has been the bane of the Caribbean for many years and some territories have had alarming results. Jamaican Education Minister Mr Ronnie Thwaites on Thursday declared himself shocked at the island’s results in the exams. The pass rate for Jamaica in English A plummeted from 63.9 percent last year to 46% percent this year while the pass rate in Mathematics dipped from 33.2 percent last year to 31.7 percent.

At a press conference on Friday to announce the Guyana results, Ms Manickchand’s woes mirrored those of Mr Thwaites. The pass rate in English A declined precipitously from 60.8% last year to 37.02 percent this year. It appears that a syllabus revision which appeared in the English A exams for the first time this year had an impact on results across the region.  In Mathematics, Guyana’s pass rate declined from 30.4% to 29.69% – worse than Jamaica’s.

The only glimmer of hope in the Minister’s presentation was the result of a pilot project she initiated shortly after assuming office last year. Keenly aware that the results in these two subject areas were dismal, the Minister embarked on a project geared to produce improvements in the period between last December and May’s sitting. Thirty-six schools across the country were targeted and a series of measures implemented.

These included special training for Maths and English teachers via the Non-Graduate programme, workshops with subject specialists, strengthening the Maths programme at the Cyril Potter College of Education, and the institutionalisation of a remediation programme.

The Ministry also ensured that the students participating in the pilot obtained the requisite resources including texts, study guides and past CSEC papers, among other things.

Some of the schools identified to be in the pilot project included Abram Zuil – where the top CSEC performer hailed from – and Aurora, in Region 2; Stewartville, Leonora, and Zeeburg, in Region 3; Annandale, Covent Garden, and Bladen Hall, in Region 4;  East Ruimveldt, North Georgetown, Brickdam, and Richard Ishmael, in Georgetown; Bush Lot, Bygeval, and Woodley Park primary-top, in Region 5; Tagore, New Amsterdam Multilateral, and Skeldon Line Path, in Region 6; Three Miles in Region 7; St. Ignatius, in Region 9; and Mackenzie High, Silver City, and Christianburg, in Region 10.

So did these measures make a difference to the May results? The Minister was clearly elated by the output. Though the national average for passes in both English A and Mathematics had declined, the Minister reported that for the 36 schools in the pilot project, the pass rate in Mathematics was 39.85% and 52.05% in English A – both significantly above the national figure. The proximate impetus for the improved results would appear to be the interventions mapped out by the Minister and her officers.

Buoyed by the returns, the Minister is now charting an expansion of the project to other schools and she told the press conference that she plans an aggressive public awareness programme that will entail interfacing with the community and parents in the quest for better scores. She projected that if the results matched planning that in three to four years, the hand-wringing over the performance in these two core subjects could be over.

The results are heartening and invite an expansion while at the same time carefully evaluating and analyzing the overall effect of the project. Were  there any other factors in these schools that could have contributed to improved results? Did some of the 36 schools show meteoric improvements while some barely did better? Answers to these questions could help narrow down  the factors that led to a rapid improvement in the results.  More data would also be helpful. For instance, in relation to the 36 schools was there a knock-on effect on results in the other subject areas. Did the students who delivered the improved performance also do better in the other subjects having benefited from improved teaching and guides in Mathematics and English A which could have helped them to prepare better for other subjects. Could there have been a decline in their performance in other subjects as a result of the emphasis placed on Maths and English?

Similarly, were the overall results for the schools better or was there improvement only in these two subject areas? The concentration of resources and time in these two areas could have unwittingly taken away from effort in other areas.

Teachers from the pilot schools should also be interviewed in detail about the outcomes and their perspectives on what led to better results.

Are these special measures being implemented by Minister Manickchand applicable across the board and what will be the cost particularly in terms of scarce human resources? Would such an intervention be sustainable or in a couple of years results will slide again? If there is a positive follow through how can it be employed to produce better results not only in the range of subjects offered at CSEC but the quality of studentship and the employability of students on leaving school with only CSECs?  Further, what about commensurate recognition of the role of teachers and the need to value their efforts and tangibly recognize them. Will the ministry now set about trying to implement lessons from this project in the lower forms of secondary schools?

Minister Manickchand and her officers should be applauded for this pilot and the public will now await its expansion and the results of next year’s exams.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/opinion/editorial/08/13/the-pilot-project-in-maths-and-english-a/

An alarming 67% of students failed Mathematics at the May/June Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations this year, triggering a region-wide call to address the situation.

The Caribbean Examina-tions Council (CXC) yesterday announced that only 33% of the entrants for the Mathematics examination achieved acceptable grades one to three—marking a continued decline over the last three years.

In 2010, 41% of candidates earned similar grades and last year thefigure was 35%.

As a result of the situation, CXC’s Subjects Awards Committee (SAC) reported that it was “deeply concerned” about the quality of work produced by the candidates at the CSEC level.

“Topics such as the range, perimeter, and profit and loss that should be covered at the lower secondary level were not fully understood,” the SAC said, in a report to the Final Awards Committee on the situation, quoted in a release by CXC yesterday. It also noted that on a question that tested perimeter and area, 36% of the candidates scored no marks, while on a question testing algebra, 33% of candidates also scored zero.

The SAC has called on the region to address teaching and performance in Mathematics by reorganizing its Mathema-tics programme, supporting teacher training and facilitating access to instructional resources.

According to CXC, Registrar Dr Didacus Jules said the council is establishing an expert working group to recommend comprehensive changes in teaching, learning and assessment of Mathema-tics. It is providing teacher training in more effective syllabus delivery and SBA management, strengthening mathematics content on its free interactive online portal (www.notesmaster.com), providing study guides in core subject areas in CSEC and CAPE, including Mathema-tics, and encouraging participating countries to use CCLSC Mathematics as a foundation programme for developing the competencies for mastery of the subject.

Decline
Meanwhile, CXC also said that for the third straight year the overall performance in the May/June examination has declined, with 62% achieving acceptable grades, compared with 66% in 2011 and 69% in 2010.

There were 35 subjects offered for the examination, which saw improved performances in nine of them, a decline in 19, and no movement in six. One new subject, Additional Mathematics, saw 58% of candidates achieving acceptable grades.

English A was among the subjects that saw a decline, with those achieving acceptable grades plummeting to 47% , down from 67% last year. This year was the first examination since the revised syllabus took effect and the SAC blamed the decline in performance on how students fared on the Essay Paper, especially in the summary and comprehension questions. “The SAC has suggested that the teaching of the language must enable students to move away from prescribed and rehearsed answers seen in some questions, to the point where they can effectively and appropriately use rhetorical devices that enrich expression and facilitate comprehension,” CXC said.

In English B, there was also a slight decline in performance when this year’s results were compared with those of last year. A revised syllabus was also introduced this year and the SAC found that candidates had trouble with the Poetry Profile and this affected the overall performance in the subject. Performance in the other two profiles, Drama and Prose Fiction.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/news/guyana/08/11/67-failure-rate-in-maths-triggers-regional-call-for-action/

Guyana’s performances have worsened in Mathematics and English A at the recent May/June Caribbean Secondary Education Certification (CSEC) examinations, with results in the two subjects falling below the declining regional averages.

Education Minister Priya Manickchand yesterday said the ministry had already known of the weakness of students in the two core areas and measures have been put in place to stem poor performance in Mathematics, where only 29.69% of candidates achieved grades one to three, compared with 30.4% in 2011, and 34.5% in 2010.

For English A, 37.02% of candidates achieved grades one to three passes—plummeting from 60.8% last year and 59.2% the year before. Performance in English A also declined at the regional level after a three year increase in scores. This year was the first examination using the revised syllabus and the decline in performance has been blamed on how students performed on the Essay Paper, especially on the summary and comprehension questions.

Overall, the pass rate for Guyana at the General and Technical proficiencies for Grade One to Three was 58.69%, while for Grades One to Four pass the rate was 80.3%. These figures also represented declines, from 64.4% and 84.6%, respectively, from last year and from 2010, when the country had managed improved overall pass rates.

‘Pilot success’

At a press conference held at the National Center for Education Research Development, at  Kingston, Manickchand said the ministry would be scaling up the pilot school project that aims to boost Mathematics and English scores. Among the steps to be taken, she added, is an aggressive public awareness programme that will include interfacing and involving the community and parents for them to join educators in ensuring better scores.

“Guyana has a reason to celebrate,” Manickchand declared, while reporting the results so far from the pilot project, which was initiated in January of this year and implemented in 36 secondary schools from every region across the country. She noted that the overall pass rates for Mathematics and English in the pilot schools were 39.85% in Mathematics and 52.05% in English, above the national and regional averages.

“While the region did worse in Mathematics and while Guyana did worse than last year in Mathematics, the schools where we introduced this programme with strict monitoring did remarkably well than they did last year,” she said. “That to me is a story to us that if we pay attention to this… strategically and aggressively implemented, if we start attacking this problem now in a strategic holistic way, in three, four years, we are not going to be wringing our hands,” she adding, further noting that educating children is not the business of the Ministry of Education alone or the government of Guyana, but every person should help.

From the 36 schools, 18 were yesterday highlighted for their improvements at this year’s examinations. Among them was the Berbice High School, which saw its pass rate rise from 12.8% to 51.56% by students in the two subject areas.

Other schools also recorded improvements, including Santa Rosa Secondary (from 7.4% to 12.85%), Stewartville Secondary (21.4% to 23.7%), Leonora Secondary (5.7% to 9.01%) West Demerara Secondary (62.6% to 80.3%), Covent Garden Secondary (31.3% to 34.36%), Hope Secondary (26.9% to 38.26%), Bygeval Secondary (42.2% to 42.86%), Mahaicony Secondary (32.2% to 41.86%), Skeldon Line Path Secondary (42.9% to 48.64%), JC Chandisingh Secondary (39.4% to 40%), New Amsterdam Multilateral (60.8% to 62.89%), Three Miles Secondary (7.4% to 21.43%), Brickdam Secondary (63.1% 63.83%), East Ruimveldt (4.1% to 12.79%), North Georgetown Secondary (28.7% to 33.33%), North Ruimveldt Secondary (54.9% to 55.7%) and Christ Church (36.4% to 61.91%).
Manickchand was not pleased with the performance of the country’s private schools and said they were “bringing down the national average.” However, she stated that while the ministry did not use private schools in their pilot project, they were afforded the entire textbook and guidelines used.

The need for parental and community involvement was stressed by the Minster. “The schools that had the greatest turnout of parents at their meetings when we went to speak to them are the schools that did better. The schools where the parents didn’t turn out are the schools the programme didn’t work for,” said the Minister.

Using this year’s top student as an example of the rewards of parent and community participation in a child’s education, she said, “At Abram’s Zuil, every time we went, her mother was there, her grandmother was there and that’s the kind of support we had. The community she lived in recognised she was a child with talent and helped.”

Meanwhile, Manickchand reported that at the May/June sitting of the examination there were 13,878 candidates—representing an increase—who sat examinations in 34 subject areas. Of that amount, 8,530 or 62% were from public schools and 5,348 or 38% from private schools, while 8,760 were females and 5118 were males.

The minister said that of the 34 subjects, there were excellent performances in 14, where grade one to three passes exceeded 75%: Agriculture Science (DA), Agriculture Science (SA), Clothing & Textiles, Food & Nutrition, French, Home Economics Management, Information Technology, Integrated Science, Religious Education, Theatre Arts, Electronic Document Preparation and Management, Physical Education & Sport, Building Technology (Const.) and Mechanical Engineering Technology.

Satisfactory performances were recorded in 16 subjects, where over 50% of candidates secured grades one to three passes and over 75% of candidates secured grades one to four passes: Biology, Caribbean History, Economics, English B, Geography, Office Administration, Physics, Principles of Accounts, Principles of Business, Social Studies, Spanish, Technical Drawing, Human and Social Biology, Additional Mathematics, Building Technology (Woods) and Electrical & Electronic Technology.

Meanwhile, apart from Mathematics and English, Chemistry and Visual Arts were the subjects where unsatisfactory performances—less than 50% grade one to three passes—were recorded.
Chemistry recorded a 46.41% pass rate with grades one to three, while Visual Arts saw a 44.51% pass rate.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/news/guyana/08/11/maths-english-passes-continue-to-plummet/

Education Minister Priya Manickchand says while she is personally against corporal punishment being administered in schools many parents do not see such disciplining as abuse and hence the need for consultations.

She added that what is addressed in the UN Conven-tion on the Rights of the Child, which Guyana has ratified, is child abuse and not specifically corporal punishment.

This comment came in light of a letter published in the August 05 edition of the Stabroek News with the headline: “Guyana has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibiting the infliction of corporal punishment in government schools so what is the purpose of the consultations?”

When asked about this, Manickchand said that the UN Convention did not deal specifically with the issue of corporal punishment but that of child abuse. Most Guyanese, she continued, do not consider beating children as a form of child abuse.

Article 19 of the Conven-tion on the Rights of the Child says in part that:

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

Article 37 of the Conven-tion says in part that:

States Parties shall ensure that:

(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Human rights activists have argued that these articles are effectively a prohibition against corporal punishment.

The Education Minister said that while she wants to ban such punishment from schools, consultation with the public has so far seen parents and teachers alike against it being abolished. However, she noted, this cannot yet be determined since the consultation process is ongoing.

“They are trying to determine the public’s view….We have adopted the convention wholesale but the convention does not prevail over the constitution of Guyana. We have just adopted wholesale the convention,” she explained.

Manickchand said she cannot impose her personal thoughts on Guyana and as a result, the consultation must be held.

Alliance For Change executive member and spokeswoman, Cathy Hughes, stated that corporal punishment is totally uncalled for.

“It is totally unnecessary since Guyana has ratified the convention so I would like to assume that there has already been consultation… We are against corporal punishment,” she asserted.

She recalled that in the last parliament AFC member Chantelle Smith laid a motion to have corporal punishment abolished.

Smith’s motion had called for the National Assembly to declare the continued use of corporal punishment in schools to be a violation of Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. She had asked the Parliament to declare it a violation of the constitution and to recommend the abolition of corporal punishment under the new Education Act.

Meanwhile, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) parliamentarian Amna Ally said that neither corporal punishment nor the consultation would be supported.

“We are basing our stance on several pointers,” she told Stabroek News while listing several international conventions that Guyana had signed on to dating back to 1991. Former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, she added, had come out of a national forum and condemned corporal punishment.

“We’ve come of age to have these obsolete means of punishment of children thrown out, gone! We must understand from a psychological perspective that beating drives a fear into children and causes a

spinoff of many other ills for example, some run away from home, some become aggressive in their early years and later progress to aggressive adults… and some become fearful of talking in the classroom and other such issues,” Ally explained.

She further stated that it is time for the Guyanese society to be educated and be enabled to inculcate different disciplinary methods. “Life in school must be activity oriented; we must try to reward our children for performance. At all times, we must keep away from this brute force and ignorance that those long ago held on to. It is a new era, a new time; we must reform our minds to a change in an advanced world,” Ally suggested.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/news/guyana/08/10/manickchand-against-corporal-punishment-but-says-public-must-be-fully-consulted/

Eighteen-year-old Queen’s College (QC) student, Jonelle James, is this year’s top performer at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).
James, the daughter of Guyana Defence Force Colonel Sydney James, gained five grade ones, in Biology, Caribbean Studies, Chemistry, Food and Nutrition and Pure Mathematics.

QC also produced several others top achievers, among them, Navindra Baldeo (four Grade Ones, one Grade Three); Christopher Chinnatambi (four Grade Ones, two Grade Twos); Kelly-Ann Persaud (four Grade Ones, one Grade Two); Melodie Lowe (four Grade Ones, one Grade Two); and Raphael Bascom (four Grade Ones, one Grade Two). 
Of 17 other top performers who each obtained three Grade One passes, three are from QC; three from The Bishops’ High School; three from St. Rose’s High and one apiece from President’s College and the Adult Education Association.

Females reportedly accounted for 60.7 percent of those who passed.
Other schools presenting candidates were Mackenzie High; New Amsterdam Multilateral; St. Stanislaus College; Mae’s Secondary and St. Joseph’s High.
During a press conference yesterday morning, Education Minister Priya Manickchand revealed that Guyana has registered a pass rate of 86.2 percent as against 82.5 in 2011. A total of 740 students wrote the exams in May at ten examination centres.

The Minister added that while there was a smaller number of students (627) that went up for the examination last year, writing a total of two thousand, five hundred and fifty-one (2,571) subjects, on this occasion, three thousand and thirty-four (3,034) subjects were written, and despite this, the pass rate percentage was able to climb.
Minister Manickchand explained that the overall performance in 2012, as compared to previous years, provides a much better report. She gave the respective figures to confirm this.

It was also noted that CXC results are likely to be released by tomorrow.
Top Performers …..
Jonelle James -This young lady is no stranger to being in the spotlight. She was a top performer two years ago at the CXC examinations. Relatives in Guyana broke the news to James who is presently on vacation in the United States.
Navindra Baldeo expressed surprise at being among the top students.

“I’m very surprised and a bit excited” Baldeo told Kaieteur News. He said that his preparation for the exam started months before. He recounted that he also took extra lessons and his friends, teachers and parents played a major part in his success. His future ambition is to become a doctor. He also disclosed that he has a scholarship to the University of the West Indies.

Christopher Chinnatambi also said he was very excited and quite pleased with his results. “I studied for hours….I had to do it in a very disciplined way” he told Kaieteur News. He intends to further his studies at the University of Guyana. He would like to become a chemical engineer or cardiologist.

Melodie Lowe was thrilled and obviously satisfied with her results.  She said that she loves to read and that is one of the major things which helped her. Lowe said that she also took extra lessons to help in her weak areas. She intends to follow a career in medicine.

Source:By Latoya Giles; https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/08/09/qcs-jonelle-james-tops-cape/