The state of the education system came under the magnifying glass yesterday in the House, where Education Minister Priya Manickchand sought to defend government’s progress in the face of criticism that despite the billions spent, the nation’s children are not benefitting.

In a fiery presentation, Manickchand accused the opposition of disrespecting the hard working men and women in system and she put shadow minister Amna Ally and APNU on the spot for criticising a senior education officer who was present in the National Assembly at the time.

Ally, in noting concerns about technical and vocational training, said that there was no one who was qualified to manage a technical programme run by the ministry and that at the moment a retired assistant education officer was in charge of technical education. Manickchand took umbrage and she said that while the officer was not able to defend herself in Parliament, she was continuing to make sterling contributions to the nation.  “In any event, the Honourable Member was wrong as usual, the officer is the coordinator of the school boards under which [technical vocational centres] function, she is not the person in charge of the technical vocational education and I say on behalf of Guyana thank you [name of the officer],” Manickchand said, turning in the direction of the seated officer.

After Manickchand identified the officer by name, the proceedings quickly degenerated and resulted in Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman making good on earlier threats to leave because of the ruckus, which came mostly from the opposition side. Before leaving, he said that the situation had become “untenable and unbearable,” having noted that Ally did not suffer a similar interruption during her presentation.

With the debate suspended, Trotman called in the government and opposition whips, Gail Teixeira and Ally, for a private meeting and when the sitting resumed he noted that what started out as a little noise had grown to such an extent that it made it impossible for him to hear and caused the minister to shout. “It is obvious and I will not continue in an atmosphere like that,” he said, while reporting that both whips pledged their cooperation and support.

Poor

For the education sector, $26.5B has been allocated for 2012 and Ally said while APNU welcome the proposed expenditure value for money is demanded.
“We demand that the beneficiaries must be our nation’s children! We demand that monies are spent for what they are intended! We demand that there must be adequate and relevant programmes for children! We demand that there must be proper accountability and openness of all monetary transaction! We demand that or teachers must be rewarded with improved wages and better working condition!” Ally declared, adding that the education ministry must focus on skills and professionalism and stop cronyism.

In criticizing technical and vocational training programmes, Ally singled out the training schools in Mahaicony and Leonora, saying they are not conducting technical education of any significance as the children are being taught English and Mathematics to keep them occupied. She said many of the teachers are mere graduates from secondary school, with no practical experience.

Ally also lamented that the country is still faced with poor English and Mathema-tics results, noting that there has been no improvement despite budgetary injections in literacy and numeracy. She stressed the importance for helping very young students and ensuring an effective teacher to student ratio. “Where would any government in their right mind have one teacher to one hundred children with varying abilities and level?” she questioned. “So, Mr Speaker, the government must come here and ‘pampaset’ about the billions spent on education when the nation’s children continue to suffer,” Ally said.

But Manickchand challenged Ally on the numbers, explaining that the government has moved away from the ‘one-teacher school’ and she urged her colleague to bring it to her attention if such a situation exists. “The ratio now is one teacher to 35 students and in the remediation programme it is one teacher to 25 students,” she said, while adding that the fact that the government has implemented programmes to address the English and Mathematics is evidence that it cares about improving passes in the subject areas. However, she noted, literacy and numeracy is a problem that is faced by many countries across the region and the world and she invited members of the opposition to sit the examinations and try to find out the cause of the situation.

Ally also poured cold water on the government’s 24-hour learning channel, which was launched last year and for which $47M was allocated. She said the unit is “clearly not equipped to provide the 24-hour service on television that addresses the issues confronting the school system today,” adding that it serves as a regular television channel despite its initial aim to provide resources needed to support curricula delivery in schools. “Mr Speaker, I wonder how much of the $47M went to where it did not belong?” Ally asked.
Manickchand, however, later said that the channel only started in April of last year and from then a 24-hour broadcast has been provided in several regions and some 2,641 programmes were broadcast, targeting learning skills such as problem solving, collaborative learning, language skills and different levels of reading proficiency. She added that there is work to take it to another level, where adults can also learn.

Further, Ally also disputed the claim by the government that 80 secondary schools and 60 primary schools have been equipped with computer laboratories and she requested that Manickchand circulate the list of schools equipped. She noted that a school with a few computers cannot be described as having a computer laboratory. In addition, she said even in some schools the equipment is non-functional, because the complete systems are not available, while in others the computers are still in boxes as the absence of information technology teachers is a problem. She questioned what the ministry did with the money for the project.

Politics

Ally also said that the students in the lower Pomeroon are deprived of  a secondary education because the government cannot make adequate arrangements for them to attend school at Charity, as it is too expensive for parents to bear the cost. She said she has been told that the students have to wait until the dormitory is completed at Charity and she questioned whether it was because votes from that area traditionally go to the opposition party, PNC.

This assertion by Ally was described as “dangerous” by Manickchand. “If there is one thing that we shouldn’t politicize, it is the education system,” she said, adding that the students were offered places at the Wakapoa dorm but this offer was understandably refused and plans are now being made for them to access education through other means.

She also said the government now boasts 22 dormitories around the country, where more than 2,000 students are accessing education even though she acknowledged that there are problems in the dorms that are to be addressed.

Touching on the University of Guyana, Ally said that there are too many problems at the institution and she urged Manickchand to take a “hard look” at improving the conditions.

Ally said the government members operate as if history began after 1992 but reminded them that the work today is premised on the infrastructure laid by the PNC as well as the opportunities offered by it is many programmes that benefited “young people like you and me.”

Ally also recommended that the National Centre for Education Resource Develop-ment (NCERD) be put under a microscope, saying there is need for quality and not quantity results. She also urged a stop to the syndrome of “jobs for the boys” and for work with professionals and called for the subvention to the Critchlow Labour College to be restored.

Manickchand said the workers in the education sector are not cronies but people who have started working since they were teenagers. She singled out Chief Education Officer Olato Sam, who was present, saying he is an example a “young, bright and thorough” worker. She added that when the opposition says nothing has been done in the education sector, it is not speaking to her but to the thousands of employees who work in the system.

Going to Parliament and saying there was nothing done by the PPP/C and that there is nothing in the budget for anyone and no improvement under the government is as “reasonable as if we on this side came to say we have done it all and there is nothing left for us to do,” Manickchand argued. She added that to say that the people have given the opposition a majority and not saying that the same people said the government should lead the development of the country, cannot be called reasonable. “Calling sexily for inclusive government and inclusive governance and slapping away…every outstretched hand that is made can hardly be called reasonable,” she added, while questioning whether it is inclusive governance or government that the opposition is after.
Manickchand also pointed out that the PPP/C has achieved the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education and the government’s continuous expenditure in the sector has seen the country reaching closer to universal secondary education, which would be achieved in another five years. She further charged that the results of having more secondary schools is that more children are writing CSEC and passing, pointing out that when she wrote the examinations, there were 5,125 candidates and last year the number was over 12,700.

“That is the effect of equitable distribution of service, sir, that is the effect of investing in the education sector, sir,” she said, to loud desk thumps from her colleagues. She added that there is now an education system in the country where every child can access to equitable service and she noted that teachers are the backbone of the service.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/news/guyana/04/17/manickchand-ally-clash-over-education/

Dear Editor,
What passes for a judicial system in Guyana is badly broken. The sad fact is that no one is working seriously to fix it. Not the administrators, not the practicing bar, not the Government.
It has been broken for a long time but in recent times it has come under public scrutiny partly because of the decisions of the Acting Chief Justice Mr. Ian Chang, the Magistrate’s decision in the so-called treason case, the Freddie Kissoon libel case, the freeing of the NBS Senior Managers on the fraud charge four years after they were charged and during which time their reputation were irretrievably destroyed.
The system is also broken resulting in a severe backlog of cases. Many years ago, we were told that these would be cleared by some multi-million dollars foreign funded programme.
Instead, this programme created a public quarrel between the former Registrar Ms. Sita Ramlall and the former Chief Justice as to who received what for which work done. The backlog continues with Civil Cases piling up and many persons languishing in jail for as much as six years waiting for their cases to be heard. For those on bail the situation is not much brighter.

There is too another foreign funded programme, called the Justice Improvement Programme headed by Madam Justice Claudette Singh. Both justice and improvement seem as elusive as ever.
All of this is public knowledge but no one wants to speak about it. The legal practitioners are afraid to speak out because they have to appear before the very administrators and do not wish to take chances. One lawyer has been writing about the Registry but that is as far as the profession seems willing to go.
As a result, it is now left to lawyers like Dana Seetalall writing from a safe and secure place like Trinidad to express an opinion in the ruling by Chief Justice Chang (ag.) on the Henry Greene matter, which has to potential of being Guyana’s Dreyfus Affair. I wish too to recognise Minister Priya Manickchand, Attorney-at-Law for her courage in speaking on the issue.

One of the problems with the decision on Greene is that it has simultaneously damaged public confidence in three important constitutional offices – the Chief Justice and by extension the judicial system, the Commissioner of Police and by extension the entire Police Force, and the Director of Public Prosecution, who is constitutionally protected from interference by ‘anyone’.
It is generally agreed that the decision by Justice Chang in the Greene case sets a dangerous precedent and if allowed to stand will constitute a paradigm shift in how justice is dispensed in “republican” Guyana, in favour of those with power and influence.
My own appeal to the full Court filed on June 10, 2010 against Justice Chang’s rejection of my application to stop Synergy Holdings from proceeding with the “Fip” Motilall road has not yet been heard and my letter to him on February 12, 2012 as the Chief Judge to facilitate a re-hearing of the matter by the Full Court as provided for under the Rules of the High Court were neither answered with an acknowledgement nor a response. It is possible that the acting Chief Justice is a very busy Judge.

His ruling on the Cricket Board, including veiled but welcome advice to the Government, has also prompted much discussion and is now the main foundational plank upon which the controversial Lloyd IMC was constituted.
Then his decision stopping the Arbitral proceedings ordered by the Minister of Labour will also no doubt provide much discussion in legal and labour circles, but the fact remains that workers, in pursuing peaceful and constitutional means of seeking their rights and reducing their grievances, have come up against a judicial brick wall.
As former Chancellor Keith Massiah has suggested in relation to the Greene affair, major issues with far reaching implications such as Greene, the Rusal Arbitration, Synergy and Cricket Administration should be adjudicated by a panel of judges.

In my view, there is a clear and compelling need for such a panel as well as a Constitutional Court dealing exclusively with the kind of issues on which the long-acting Chief Justice Chang has adjudicated, often quite controversially.
But I note that the Chief Justice is not without his cheerleaders including Attorney-at-Law Mr. Jerome Khan, all of them ready to offer the Trinidad case involving its Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, in support of the Greene decision, but all of them conveniently unable to indicate how the circumstances in the Greene affair meet the Privy Council’s test of “rare in the extreme”.

The Constitution of Guyana requires the consent of the Opposition Leader in appointing a Chancellor and a Chief Justice (not acting offices) and the President should consult early with the Opposition Leader to secure his consent for these appointments as required by the Constitution.

A Chief Justice who does not function in accordance with the Constitution and who does not enjoy the confidence of large sections of the population is not conducive to fixing any judicial system, the bedrock of a functioning society.
The President should take some time to look into this and seek serious advice from knowledgeable sources so that we may begin the arduous task of fixing a broken system before it gets worse.

Source: Ramon Gaskin; https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/04/16/legal-practitioners-are-afraid-to-speak-out/

Minister of Education [Ms. Manickchand]: May it please you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to begin by offering to the Hon. Dr. Ashni Singh our warmest congratulations for presenting a Budget has not only content that is worthy of consideration with a view to adopting but for presenting it in such a way that his almost three hour speech was pleasant to listen to.  I know that the staff of the Ministry of Finance worked long hard hours and I would like to say to that staff on behalf of all of Guyana thank you.
I would also like to welcome to this Hon. House the new and young Members who have come here for the first time and I encourage that they continue, because I have seen very pleasant representations here, to represent their constituencies in the best way that they can.

We heard on Friday Hon. Damon mentioning that perhaps we should change the name of the Opposition to something else because maybe with that name the Members on the other side feel that they have to come and appose. I heard the Hon. Ramsammy, who is always really pleasant to listen to because of his spirited speeches, saying that year after year we on this side come and propose and Members on the other side come and they oppose. That is because that is what we do.

I also heard the Prime Minister, the Hon. Leader of this House, saying that it was a confrontation that Dr. Jagan had with other members of society. Perhaps Members of the Opposition that led to us having flights to go to the interior for ordinary passengers and led to the very progressive Ogle Airport expansion. It is that that I would like us to focus on doing, the Cheddi Jagan type of confrontation, that sort of contribution that we should all make to the development of this nation. It would be up to us in this Hon. House to make the changes that we all cry out for. It is up to us in here to decide how we are going to go forward.

I do not know that being civil and reasonable means that we have to agree all the time. Some of the very issues that we discuss here and some that we will continue to discuss meet with the most passionate of disagreement in my own home and we are all good people in my home. I am not sure that we have to agree on everything, but we must be reasonable in our assertion, demands and our presentations.

I do not believe that anybody in here will question the sincerity with which Hon. Member Vanessa Kissoon represented her constituency, or the passion with which Hon. Dawn Hastings spoke on behalf of her constituency, or the earnestness that attended young Trevor Williams’ presentation who incidentally we should note is one of the few Members of the Opposition who did not read his speech as a first time Member, a young man; nor could we question the accuracy and the well research view of the Hon. Member Dr. Vindhya Persaud or the passionate accurate account by Hon. Member Jafarally or the detailed account we got of Region 2 by Hon. Damon who incidentally did not print his speech, he read it from a set of hand written pages. We cannot question that they have a deep and abiding desire to serve. I do not think that we can question that, but our presentations must be attended to by reasonableness.

I do not believe in coming to this Hon. House and saying nothing has been done by the PPP and there is no value for money or that there is nothing in this Budget for anyone. Your Honour I am always very flattered by Mrs. Backer’s attention. Some people say that it is infantile cattiness but I believe it is love, so I welcome the attention that I attract from Mrs. Backer.

Coming here and proclaiming that nothing has been done by the PPP and coming here and saying that there is nothing in this Budget for anyone, and saying that there is no improvement under this Government is as unreasonable as though we on this side came to say that we have done it all and there is nothing left to do. Coming to this House and exerting you, Sir, and the people of Guyana and exerting that the people of Guyana have given a majority to the Opposition and not seeing that those same people have asked the PPP/C to lead the development which this country would experience can hardly be called reasonable. Calling “sexily” for inclusive governance and slapping away every hand and every outstretched hand that is made can hardly be called reasonable. I heard Hon. Member Dr. Rupert Roopnarine in his maiden speech calling for, and I am quoting, “a new political epoch and seeing this new dispensation as an opportunity for offering new political culture”. Ironically, misconstruing what I said last year, my call for us to work together, so that he can make his point this year. Even more ironically, saying that they are prepared on this side of the House to meet the new challenges and rise to the occasion.
I would like to give the Hon. Member the benefit of the doubt, he has not been here, and I think all in all he is a good man. But, we have had repeated experiences where our outreached hands and our offer to work together has been slapped away. I remember when I was launching Legal Aid in Region 5 and I invited the Hon. Member who is the geographic representative, Jennifer Wade, to come and not only sit with me at the head table but make remarks on this programme. I did not give her a script, I told her to come and say whatever you want to say. The Hon. Member said that she was coming. I had Hon. Ramkarran who was our guest speaker and a whole set of executive members of the Bar and Guyana Association of Women Lawyers (GAWL) and hundreds of residence of Region 5 waiting for the Hon. Member. She never showed up until the end of the programme, but during the programme colleagues and members of the PNC/R came with placards outside of the even launch. How is that working together? Perhaps Hon. Rupert Roopnarine did not know of that. Two weeks ago I invited Hon. Member Amna Ally, who has been publically announced as the shadow Minister of Education, to come on the television programme…   [Mrs. Backer: Which channel?]

NCN, no less, to discuss the very serious issue of corporal punishment in schools. The Hon. Member said she could not make it until 6:30 p.m. and I put the programme for that time. The Alliance For Change (AFC) was represented by Mr. Dominique Gaskin, Red Thread was represented by Karen De Souza, and there was a veteran teacher in the person of Jennifer Cumberbatch. We waited and waited but, alas, the Member did not show up.  [Cries of Shame] How can it be reasonable to say that we are building trust, we are working with each other and we are prepared to rise to the challenge to work with each other? How can we say that and we come to this Hon. House with a motion in the name of no less a person than Hon. Roopnarine to change the Parliamentary Management Committee? [Interruption] No this is a fact. When the PPP/C was in office with a majority – not a slim majority but a several seat majority where several of us could have been absent and we would have voted and still won – we had a Mmanagement committee where the PPP/C had five members and the opposition had five members. Now there is the slimmest of majority, one person, and we come to change that management committee, irrespective of the agreements that we have reached amongst parties many years ago to have five members from the Government and five members from the Opposition. So when Members speak of wanting to work together it must be more than a fancy headline. It must be more than something that sounds nice on the record. The people of Guyana must judge us based on what we do and not what we say. I am wondering whether it is inclusive governance the opposition wants or whether it is the government that the Opposition wants. Inclusive governance is what we are prepared to work towards; government, they are going to have to speak to the people of Guyana who have told them, “no”. We are wondering, and I would genuinely like to know, whether the Opposition wants to work with us so that we can develop this Nation or whether they want to pick up their bat and ball and go home, and come back only when they can sit on this side of the House. Because if that is what they want that is not a genuine call for working together.
I wish to focus on the education system, but before I do that I would like for us in this Hon. House, and the Nation at large, to recognise Mr. Sheik K. Baksh, a man who served as the Minister of Education for five years immediately preceding me, and who served the people of Guyana in this National Assembly for 15 years before. The records of this country would highlght the best results in every sector of the education system occurring under his watch. While we do not have the Education Digest from 1983 to 1994 they just could not print it because they had no money to do that – the Education Digest would show that what I am saying is accurate. I would like to say on behalf of the people of Guyana that we thank former Minister Baksh for his service.

Education in any part of this world is important. It is perhaps the most important sector that any country is going to have to deal with. We are vibrantly aware in the Ministry of Education that what we do now will determine what our country looks like in the future. We are aware of that. We are not alone in our questions; we are not alone in our quest for perfection. All across this world conversations are taking place about why the investment we make is not matching the results we should get; why boys are not as interested in education as girls; how we can stem the dropout rates. Conversations are taking place all across this world and Guyana is no different. We are not only having conversations on these issues, we in the Ministry of Education are doing tangible things which will give us answers to some of the problems we have. We are not perfect at all. In fact, we have many problems, but we have to sit down and discuss a way forward for those problems to be resolved. The easiest thing to do is come here and find a leaking roof, a paling stave that fell down, a child who does not have a pair of boots, somebody’s lunch kit that is not filled, and a teacher who was not trained. It is easy to do that. The hard part, the challenging part, would be for us to sit down together and chart the way forward so that our children can be the beneficiaries of our combined efforts. But we have to first be interested in taking this sector forward.

A marked feature of the education system, in fact of every sector under the PPP/C, is equity. I heard Ms. Ally doing a dangerous thing just now – attributing to politics a school that did not have something, or a place that did not have something to politics. If there is one thing that politics should stay out of it is the education system. If there is one thing that we should not politicise, is the education system.     [Mrs. Backer: What about Genevieve Whyte-Nedd that never got confirm and the board at UG? How do we keep politics out?]

Mr. Speaker: Could we allow the Minister to complete, please?

Ms. Manickchand: Sir, this education system where we have seen equity, or constantly practiced policies to equitably deliver services, has seen results. I remember when I was in primary school all the children that went to Queens College (QC), Bishops High School, and St. Stanislaus College almost exclusively came from two schools, Stella Maris and St. Margaret’s Primary; now we are seeing children from Sparta, Cumberland and Regma Primary, In fact, the child who topped last was a little boy from Regma Primary in Region 10. A number of top students came from all across this country last year. That is equity in service. When I was going to High School all the top students at Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examination (CAPE) almost exclusively came from QC, Bishops, St. Roses High (Roses) and Saints. Last year two students topped this country and the Caribbean with fifteen grade ones, Anuradha Dev from QC and a little girl called… [Interruptions by Opposition Members]
Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members there about fifteen different debates going on and we need to hear from the Minister of Education. When Ms. Ally was speaking I did not hear these interruptions. Could we allow the Minister to proceed with the minimum of interruptions and interference, please?
Ms. Manickchand: …a little girl from New Amsterdam Multilateral School named Shalita Appadu. That is the equity of service, the result of it. We spread your service all across this country and this is what we get – children all across this country doing well. We must continue this trend. There is continuous attention and expenditure to education sector.  This year we are dedicating more than 13% of the national budget to the education sector when comparatively speaking four percent was dedicated to the sector. Thirteen percent of our budget is going to the education sector. This continuous attention, this continuous expression of love for children through the sector, has seen us achieving Millennium Development Goal No. 2. We have achieved universal primary education. That means children all across Guyana, in every nook and cranny, are accessing primary education, writing the exams so they can access secondary education, and can become self sufficient, but, more importantly, so that they can help to contribute to the development of Guyana. The continuous expenditure has seen us coming closer to a place where we have universal secondary education. We have a plan – we are about to present it and implement it – where we are going to pledge to this nation that we in Guyana will achieve universal secondary education.

We heard from Hon. Member Dawn Hastings that she was a privileged child who got a scholarship to access education and came to town. We are not bringing out the one or two good students to town; we are carrying the school to their homes to thousands. Not one, thousands of our children can access the education. Now, in addition to the schools we boast of 22 dormitories across this country where more than 2,000 children are accessing an education when, before now, they would have been without access to that education.
I would be the first to say that we have problems in the dorms. Homes that have two children have all kinds of problems – rudeness, children getting away, not doing their homework and all other kinds of problems. Where there are several children in a dorm there will be the same problems. We are talking about adolescents, teenagers, children who are becoming naturally curious. There will be problems. We are prepared to address those problems.

While I am at it, let me just say the Hon. Member Ms. Ally said that we were ignoring the Lower Pomeroon children because the Lower Pomeroon votes for the PNC/R or APNU. The Lower Pomeroon children were offered places at the Wakapow dorms. They have refused those places. We understand why and we are making provision for them to access education through other means. So to say we have ignored them at the Ministry of Education is to denigrate all those people who are working hard to deliver education in this country.

The natural result of having more secondary schools is that we have more children writing CSEC and more children passing CSEC. When I wrote CSEC, 5,125 children wrote the examination, and now in 2011, 12,700 plus children were writing. When I wrote there were 20,616 subject entries and in 2011 there were 70,781 subject entries. That is the effect of equitably distributing a service. That is the effect of investing in the education sector. This extra attention we have paid to the education system has seen us getting 70% trained teachers in our system presently. We are hoping that by 2016 all the teachers in our system can be trained.
The representation this Hon. House got just now, which incidentally is a misrepresentation, is that in the Essequibo there is one teacher to 100 students. We have moved away from the “one-teacher schools”. And I say to the Hon. Member that if she knows of a school like that, let me know. Because now the ratio is one teacher to 35 students in the secondary schools, and in the remediation programme it is one teacher to 25 students. In fact, we have no shortage in Region 2. There is an excess of teachers in Region 2 and we are trying to spread them out. These are the facts; these are the results of the investments we have made in the education system.           [Cross talking between Opposition and Government Members.]

Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members do we proceed with the debate or do I rise and go out of the Chamber and allow this to go on? I do not know what to do today. Please proceed Hon. Minister.

Ms. Manickchand: Mr. Speaker, we recognise in the PPP/C that teachers are the backbone of our education system and that is why we pay specific attention to them. Through our policies and programmes, our salary scales and other benefits we say, “We love you and thank you”. We have been saying that repeatedly. It is true there was a time in this country when teachers fled. When trends like that start and if you look at the 1993 Guyana Public Sector Review written by the World Bank, not the PPP/C, wrote this:
“The most notable change has been the sharp decline in spending on teachers’ salaries both by the Ministry and the regional administration. Over this period spending salaries by the Ministry dropped from 62% of total recurrent spending to 25%.”

So when Ms. Ally says the history of this country did not start in 1992 she is right, and we are suffering because of the history that started before under the PNC.
Mrs. Backer: Mr. Speaker, on a Point of Order, it is absolutely inaccurate, and I call on the Member to withdraw the fact, that prior to 1992 there was no education. If it means that it means that a lot of us here, including Mr. Neendkumar…     [Ms Teixeira: She did not say that.]      She did say that. She said that prior to 1992…

Mr. Speaker:  Hon. Member Mrs. Backer, you have put a Point of Order and then you continue a discussion with Ms. Teixeira.
Mr. Backer: Sorry, Sir.

Mr. Speaker: I have heard the Point of Order. Hon. Minister could you give the context in which you made the statement and let us move on, please.

Ms. Manickchand: For your benefit your Honour, with the greatest respect, I did not say we did not have education before 1992. I said I agree with Mrs. Ally that the history of this country did not start in 1992 but it started way before, and it was because of what happened way before that we are now suffering.  That is what I said. And there is a man sitting out there with a copy of the Hansard that could tell us what we said. But in 1992 I was fifteen so I do not want to speak from a 15-year-old perspective.
Let me tell you what the official record of this country was. This is represented in the World Bank Report. The Guyana Public Sector Review which is in two volumes. I will read one paragraph. The Report is for 1993 and it is our history that the Hon. Member wants to hear about. This is what it says about education:
“In the 1960s Guyana educational system was considered one of the best in the Caribbean. Today (in 1993) it is very probably the weakest; learning in the schools measured by national and Caribbean wide examinations is extremely low; a large proportion of teaching force is unqualified and untrained; text books and other teaching aids are seldom available.

Guyana’s success in achieving universal access to primary school in the early 1970s appears to be eroding and is accompanied by rising repetition and drop-out rates.
The sector’s problems are further acerbated by education subsidies which tend to be regressive favoring wealthy rather than poor children and tertiary rather than primary education.”

In 2012, what we have is a state where we have achieved universal primary education. In 2012, what we have is a place where we are closer to delivering text books to all our children even though we still have ‘a way to go’. In 2012, we have 70% of our teachers trained instead of a large portion exiting this country, and the untrained teaching this country’s children. In 2012, we have a system where not only rich people are benefitting; we have a system where every single child in Guyana could equitably access service. That is what we have in 2012.

I did not intend to go back to the report but Ms. Ally is forcing me. Teachers are the backbone of this system. We have established 10 strategic training centers all across this country, again, so that we could equitably train our teachers. Because of that, we have seen 70% of our teachers being trained. I believe it is because of this attention that we have seen 63% of our teachers in the nursery system being trained, 67% of our primary school teachers being trained with the hinterland moving from 38% to 43%. We have seen the secondary sector moving from 59%percent of trained teachers in 2007/2008 to 63% of trained teachers in 2009/2010.

Last week I sat with teachers who were delegates from the Guyana Teachers Union and I heard their concerns. I also heard their deep commitment to the development of this nation. I am confident that with the teachers we have in the system we are going to take that extra leap forward, year by year, until Guyana is developed to the point when we can all be proud and to the point when we can all say, “We have arrived”.

I heard two sad stories. Two separate teachers from two separate schools, both pregnant, were beaten by guardians and parents. Three days after one of them was beaten she lost her baby. This is something that is absolutely unacceptable. Our teachers must not face violence in school. And I ask this House to stand with me today and denounce violence against our teachers. And I say that we in this Ministry of Education are not going to tolerate any violence against teachers. Complaints we will take; any violence against teachers we shall personally ensure that the perpetrators face the full force of the law. We stand with our teachers in solidarity against violence that is being meted out to them.

Mr. Speaker, much was said about Mathematics and English, and the fact that we have instituted an intervention programme tells you that we too are worried about Mathematics and English, particularly because we need passes in Mathematics and English before children can matriculate. We are deeply worried about this matter. We are going to continue to strategically employ strategies that we hope will see results.
I wish to read this to your honour. It is an article called “What are Science and Mathematics Scores Really Telling Us”. It was written by Allan Brown and Linda LaVine Brown. I am talking about the United States.

I quote:

“Maybe you remember the headlines: “Math and science tests find fourth and eighth graders in U.S. still lag many peers”, proclaimed the New York Times. “No gain by U.S. students on international exam”, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. “Economic time bomb: U.S. teens are among worst at math”, warned the Wall Street Journal.
Of course, every commentator has a seemingly obvious solution. “Spend less time motivating students and more time enforcing standards”, proclaimed the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Give parents school vouchers, and open charter schools”, demanded Newark Star-Ledger columnist. “Throw away the calculators, and get back to basics”, insisted a coalition of conservative Californians.”

It is true that we have problems, and I always remember Justice Bernard saying we are really good at self flagellation. We are excellent at beating up ourselves without seeing a bigger picture. When I wrote CSEC a much smaller number wrote CSEC. When I wrote CXC 9% of us passed English, and 18% passed Mathematics.    [Mrs. Backer: Which school?]      Nationally, across this nation.

When our Hon. Friend James Bond wrote CSEC in 1997 13% of our children passed English and 13% passed Mathematics. Our 30 percent for Mathematics now is bad but it is better than it was before. The point has to be made that it is now that we are doing bad in Mathematics, the country has a history of doing bad in Mathematics; it has a history of doing bad in English. We must examine why. If we really want a solution then I invite you come and sit down and let us examine why. Let us take this forward.
In 2011, 30 %of our students passed Mathematics and 6o % of our students passed English. I want to say this: while it is true we have done poorly we are not alone. Let me give you what the other CARICOM countries did in 2011. Antigua and Barbuda 28% of their students passed Mathematics; Dominica 34 % of their students passed Mathematics; Grenada 31 % of their students passed Mathematics; Jamaica 33% of their students passed Mathematics; Montserrat 32% of their students passed Mathematics; St. Lucia, 28%; St Vincent and the Grenadines, 25%; Suriname, 5%; Guyana, 30%. There were four countries which lead the Caribbean, and the highest of those countries got 51%, barely over the pass.
So, Sir, what we came up with last year is a five-person partnership – government, parents, students, teachers and volunteers to help us monitor this. The government was to provide equipment and materials and resource s – textbooks, calculators, geometry sets, graph paper, past papers, and revision DVDs. We met with almost all the students who were present, more than once, from November to now, to inspire them and talk about attitudes we need to employ if we are going to be successful at these exams. We met with all the parents who turned up, more than once again. The number of students we are looking at is more than half of the present cohort writing CSEC in the public schools; and more than 41 schools are benefiting in every single region of this country from those resources. Then there are volunteers who have kindly consented to check with these schools daily or weekly, however often they want, to ensure the system we put in place is actually working. Our teachers, whom we must commend, have not only embraced this programme but are enthusiastic about carrying it on. They have been putting in extra hours so that our students could pass Mathematics and English. We must thank them and say congratulations to our teachers.

And yes, it is true that we have to wait until the results to say whether this method worked. But this is what I will tell you, whether we see immediate results or not I can say with every confidence that what we have done is reinvigorate the mathematical conversation across this country even to the point where they call us crazy people at the Ministry. Let us start this debate, let us start talking about some of the solutions, irrespective of how you voted, irrespective of how you look, let us have that conversation in a constructive way.
The Guyana Learning Channel started in 2011. When we listened to the Hon. Member, the Chief Whip, Hon. Amna Ally, we would believe we had this programme forever but it is not working and there are so many problems with it. This programme started on 1st April, 2011 and from then to now we have provided a 24-hour service in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10. We are putting in infrastructural works in Region 8. We are at different stages of setting up at Karasabai, Ituni, and Orealla. Mabaruma is experiencing some power problems that will be fixed shortly, and as soon as it is fixed we will be on air. From then to now 2,641 programmes were broadcasted targeting learning skills such as problem solving, collaborative learning, language skills, and different levels of reading proficiency. Over 60 local programmes were produced, but we want to take this learning channel to a different stage.

We want to take it to a place where we can say, “Listen Guyana, big or small, adult or child, if you watch and follow these programmes on Spanish and Portuguese every day at this particular hour, by x number of days or x period of time, you will be proficient in these two languages”. Those are the kinds of innovative, visionary methods we have to use if we are to take our education system from a place where none of us are happy with, to a place where we can all be happy.
The Hon. Amna Ally raised a few issues that I would like to address. The Hon. Member said that we would… well I want to address this one first, the Hon. Member said the person who was appointed head of the TVET (Technical and Vocational Education Training) Centres was unqualified and went on to give enough characteristics of that person so that she was identifiable, including to retort to a heckle that it was not a male, it was a female. That Hon. Member is not capable of defending herself in this Hon. House. She is a former Chief Education Officer (acting) and she is continuing to provide sterling service to this nation. If you want to attack us, attack me, do not speak about my Officers; do not attack my officers… [Interruption]  They have spent their entire life giving service; all of them. Some of them started working from the age of 16 and they continue giving service and in any event… [Interruption]

Mr. Speaker: Ms. Ally, allow the Minister to respond please.

Ms. Manickchand: In any event, the Hon. Member was wrong, as usual. The Officer is the coordinator of the school boards under which the TVET Centres function. She is not the person in charge of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training. I say on behalf of Guyana, thank you Mrs. Melcita Bovell.  [Interruption]

Mr. Speaker: Can we have the Minister proceed please.

Ms. Manickchand: The Hon. Member made much of us hiring cronies and giving jobs to the boys. Sir, I look across the education sector and I am very happy, very please and very grateful that I can rely on the persons who are behind me here today, to take this sector forward. These persons are not cronies. Look at them; they started working since they were 16 and 17 years old in this education system. How did they become cronies? Look at our Chief Education Officer, young, bright and thorough, how is he a crony?The Hon. Member spoke about monitoring and evaluation. We have one of the best persons in our system, Ms. Donna Chapman, who is going to make sure our monitoring and evaluation is at a different level.

We recognise we have problems, but you cannot come to this Hon. House and make out as though all the persons from the Ministry of Education are a waste. When you say we have done nothing, you are not speaking to Manickchand; you are speaking to the thousands of persons who work daily in this system. You are telling them their whole life they spent teaching and administrating, they did nothing. That is what you are telling them and that cannot be acceptable. [Interruption]

On the issue of computers, again, the Hon. Member did not represent to this House the truth. We have set up infrastructure across this country and an entire unit headed by Ms. Marcia Thomas who is going region to region to make sure those computers are installed and to make sure they are working. This is a bigger strategy; this is a part of bringing education to our people and giving them computers not only in schools… [Interruption]

Sir, the Ministry of Education recognises that while we have to steal from the Hon. Kwame Mcoy, we have come a far way. Even from year to year within the period that this Government was in office and I believe that we can fairly say that the education system now for over two decades is the best that it has ever been. But, I would say with equal surety that we are not where we want to be, it is a work in progress that we dedicate ourselves to every single day. Not only the persons at the Ministry, but the 10,000 teachers teaching out there, the parents of the 300,000 students that we have in our systems, the managers of the almost 1,000 schools that we have in this country, every day we are working to make it better. I cannot tell you, that if we spend 50% of our budget on education that we are not going to get those leaky roofs somewhere in this country; that we are not going to get a step that needs repairing; or we are not going to get a students who need a different textbook. I could tell you Sir that we have a lot of work to do in the system.
Our vision for this year is going to encompass us starting to or continuing along the track in a focused way to attain universal secondary education. We will be focusing on science and right now we are recognised in the region for the various programmes we have put in the science system. We are going to be focusing on the field of science and how we are going to better deliver this so that we will make children interested and not only interested, but that that interest will translate into graduation from science fields which our country needs.

We are going to be focusing on how we could provide better for our children with disabilities and our special needs children. We are going to be focusing on how we can improve the mathematics and English grades. I would be the first to tell you that four months is the most undesirable period to have to change a grade. We know it has to start at nursery school, we know continuing the primary school. This will be the only four-month programme this country sees because we intent to start it and put the measures in place, which needs to be put in place so that three or four years from now mathematics will not be posing as big of a problem as it was posing for us for the last two decades.
We are going to be focusing on how to do more on the Learning Channel that allows us to use this as a resource that is not only visionary, but could realise the vision we saw when we put it in place. We are going to be focusing more on monitoring and evaluation. It needs to be done and we have capable persons who can carry that programme out. I have met personally, more than once, the Regional Education Officers, telling them that they have our support and what we need from them in terms of monitoring. As we speak, we are looking, we have a consultant doing a study on what our schools need. By the time she is finished we are going to know, not only which schools needs a better sanitary facility or a better child friendly area, but we are going to know the costs that are attached to this.
Even as we speak, even as we can celebrate here right now, today in 2012, the progress we have made in this sector. I would be the first to tell you that we know every time one student does well, we have twenty more that we have to work with. Even as we celebrate our progress we must continue to strive to make sure that we take this to a different height. We take education in Guyana to a different height, a higher height. In this effort, the Government alone cannot do it; the Government alone does not want to do it. The Hon. Vanessa Kissoon can tell me better about how the automatic promotion policy is working, because she is in the schools, she is there, we have spoken about it and we have to speak about it some more.

I want to; and I invite, with every sincerity, the contributions that the Members of this Hon. House have to make, whether they are critical or supportive. We must be supportive, we must, “Gave Jack his jacket” we must recognise when things have gone well, but I have no objections to being told that things are not going well and where they are not going well and what is going badly about it.

I have given to Ms. Ally, the shadow Minister, all the telephone numbers she can possibly get me on, home, office and cell. I have offered to Ms. Hastings, who is in the region, all the telephone numbers she can get me on. I said the same thing to Mr. Alicock.
I want to say, the Government is reaching out, we are reaching our hands out and asking you, the Members of the Opposition, to hold our hands and let us take Guyana forward, but there is only so far we can reach. If every time we reach out, because it is political expedient to do so, the Members of the Opposition hide their hands behind their backs, Guyana will progress, but not as quickly as we can progress if we worked together. We welcome not only the Opposition Members, but all the citizens of this dear land to work along with us, to take us to the place where we can all celebrate a Guyana where we are doing better in our homes individually and where we are doing better across the nation in every single sector.

The World Bank says that we have to cut poverty in half, we used to be 67% I believe in 1991 and in 2006 they did a report and said we now have poverty at a level of 35%. We have cut poverty in half, but I wonder if we went this route alone and if we had seen the kind of cooperation, I believe we can see in this House, then how much further would we have cut it?

While we have cut poverty on this side of the House, the Government has provided an environment where poverty has been reduced by half, we still have 35% of our people living in poverty and so until there is no person left living in poverty, this Hon. House and every Member herein has work to do. I invite the Hon. Members, genuinely, to work along with us so that we can bring this poverty level down much further and much quicker with a view only to providing service to the people we have stood up here and sworn to serve. I thank you Sir.

Source: http://parliament.gov.gy/media-centre/speeches/budget-speech-hon-ms-manickchand-2012/#.XCWfZlxKjIU

Source: https://www.pressreader.com/guyana/stabroek-news-sunday/20120415/281496453271071

— Jamaica/Guyana examples

WHILE JAMAICA is lamenting the high incidence of sexual abuse of children, there is political furore in Guyana over the decision of its acting Chief Justice (Ian Chang), to dismiss a submission by the Director of Public Prosecutions (??) for prosecution of Police Commissioner Henry Greene for commiting an alleged rape. The Chief Justice feels so offended by public political comments over his recent decision to reject the DPP’s case against the top cop that he has signalled his intention to consider resigning from office.

Simultaneously, a militant women’s organisation in Guyana, ‘Red Thread’, has gone public with new concerns over the long delays in court proceedings against a politician and owner/operator of a private television station (CN Sharma) charged with claimed sexual molestations against a school girl and her sisters, members of a poor family.
Rape is generally regarded as quite a challenging crime to establish in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion details often provided to the police and subsequently reported in the media continue to be a haunting nightmare for many families and communities across the Caribbean Region.

In Jamaica—as reported last Thursday by the Daily Observer- the Office of Children’s Registry (OCR) was lamenting the shocking news that at least 7,245 Jamaican children were victims of sexual assaults over the past four years, with perpetrators including even parents or guardians.
Among the rape victims was a nine-year-old lad who, according to the OCR’s Dr Sandra Knight, had been repeatedly raped by a pastor. He was given J$20 each time the ‘pastor’ had sex with him. A number of these victims of sexual molestation have been diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis, herpes and HIV.
Blaming the frightening culture of “death to informers,” the OCR has frustratingly reported that it has no record at thistime of how many of these thousands of sexual abuse cases have been prosecuted, or to pass judgement on the lack of significant public outrage..

Sad situation
This sad situation is not, however, a peculiarity of Jamaica in the Caribbean Community. For, to follow similar developments in other CARICOM states—Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago for example–it at times takes a mix of party politics and corruption by elements in law-enforcing agencies for revelations to emerge about the degrading cases of rape and various forms of sexual abuse.
Currently in Guyana, with party politicking a major factor driving public reactions, there ismuch furore surrounding the case of an alleged rape incident involving Police Commissioner Greene and the acting Chief Justice for ruling against the submission presented by the DPP for prosecution.

In this particular case, it is felt that there seems to be the need for a separation of the Chief Justice’s rejection of the submission made by the DPP for prosecution, and why the top cop should not tender his resignation without any further delay, given the circumstances of his admission of having had sex with thecomplainant by “mutual consent”.
The anger that has erupted, particularly from women’s groups and opposition parties, as well as a female cabinet minister over the Chief Justice’s decision to reject the DPP’srecommendation that the top cop be tried for rape, seems to betray a reluctance to come to grips with the reasoning outlined in his lengthy court statement.
The unfolding preference is to sock “the messenger” for the “message” delivered. There is, of course, a distinction between disagreeing with a judge’s ruling and hurling condemnatory abuse at him/her
In this context, the ‘Stabroek News,’ as a leading newspaper in Guyana, perhaps deserves to be commended for demonstrating the vital element of social responsibility of the journalism profession when it chose to publish, unedited, the full text of the Chief Justice’s decision. Basically, that a case of rape–as distinct from “sex by mutual consent”—had NOT been established against the accused Greene.

Resignation?
From an independent perspective, readers of the text of the Chief Justice’s decision would not require any special legal training to exercise a judgement in support of the position he took against the rape complainant.
It would be a great pity, therefore, if the Chief Justice, who had long ago established a healthy reputation in Guyana’s legal profession and judicial system, should feel constrained to resign his office because of what he considers inaccurate and hurtful assumptions and conclusions about his decision.
He has stated that his concerns were not over reactions from women’s groups or other civil society organisations but persons holding public offices, although he did not name them, they would include the parliamentary opposition leader, David Granger, and the female Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.
But, apart from the Chief Justice’s expressed deep disappointment with the criticisms levelled at his judgement, there is, on the other hand, the critical attention also on Police Commissioner Green.
It is felt  that in having been freed from facing a court trial for alleged rape, the Commissioner, by his own admission of having had sex with the complainant in the circumstances of their meeting, owes it to the very high office he holds to simply do the honourable thing of tendering his resignation.

Mortar and pestle
However well he may have previously preserved it, Greene’s credibility has been seriously compromised by the sexual encounter he had with the woman complainant and he is under increasing pressure to resign.
And perhaps he should, although there appears to be more in the mortar then the pestle.  After all, Commissioner Greene has been holding his post-retirement position amid political controversies involving him and the top cop he succeeded–Winston Felix- with whom working relations were known to have been quite poor.
It so happens that Felix became a parliamentarian of the main opposition party, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), following last November’s general and regional elections. So, welcome to party politics, law and justice in Guyana, as hope is kept alive for concerted action, as distinct from political rhetoric, in Jamaica to deal with the huge number of cases of sexual abuse against children.

Also, for success in the latest effort by the Red Thread women activists to achieve a court trial of the television owner and politician, CN Sharma, who is facing charges of sexual molestation of children.
For his part, Chief Justice Chang could perhaps be prevailed upon to give careful consideration about resigning from office because of what he views as unfair public comments designed to tarnish his reputation. Such a development may give joy to his critics but create a serious problem for independence, competence and integrity of the judiciary in Guyana.
At the time of writing it could not be officially confirmed if there is precedent elsewhere in CARICOM for a Chief Justice, having rejected the submission of a DPP, to come under such public political pressure to warrant his consideration to resign.

Source: Analysis by Rickey Singh https://guyanachronicle.com/2012/04/15/sexual-abuse-of-children-and-the-politics-of-rape-4

…Bynoe urges tougher legislation

Two Berbice teachers appeared on Thursday before the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) third Biennial Conference and Minister of Education to relate tales of being physically assaulted by parents in the classrooms at their respective schools.
Both teachers were pregnant at the time of the incidents. One of the teachers suffered a miscarriage a few days later. One of the teachers, 28-year- old Carmalita Hackim of Skeldon Primary School, said that she was assaulted by a child’s aunt in January.

The teacher, who said that she was hit on her back by the woman, suffered a miscarriage a few days later.
She stated that on January 19, around 12:45 hrs, she was supervising a class in Grade 2A and “was confronted by this girl (name given), and she asked me if there was a problem– that I hit her nephew (name of child given). I told her I did not, that I only tapped the child on his shoulder for him to tell the other child ‘sorry’ and she turned to me and asked me for a demonstration of how I dealt with her nephew”.

The teacher said that she then tapped the woman on her shoulder to show her how she dealt with her nephew and “then she turned and dealt me three blows in the arm, severely…Then she asked how I would feel if she would have hit me like that so I told her I did not hit the child as she had just hit me”.
The woman then said that she was going to visit the Department of Education in New Amsterdam. As the teacher was turning to go back to her class, she was once more allegedly dealt another two blows to the back, “and I was near two months’ pregnant– seven weeks, three days pregnant.
“At that time I gave a complaint to the Divisional Head of the School since the head teacher was at a meeting at another school in Crabwood Creek”.

The head teacher was subsequently informed and reported the matter to the Education officials in the region. The police were also informed about the matter and promised to “do their investigations”.
The educator noted that no charges were laid against the boy’s aunt and nothing has been done to give her justice for the child she lost through the miscarriage. She is certain the blows she received to the back resulted in her losing her baby.
The teacher asked, “But what about my unborn child that I lost? I am a mother… I am suffering right now in more than one way; I lost my child on my husband’s birthday…what better gift can I give him?”
The teacher, who has been teaching for 12 years, maintained that she did not originally hit the child but rather reprimanded him “and leaned over the desk and tried to talk to him because he was laughing at a new child who had come in the class that day.

“I just leaned over and tapped him on the shoulder and told him to tell the girl ‘sorry’. “He was laughing at the new girl– she couldn’t write properly so she started to cry when he was laughing at her. But the aunt claimed that I beat this boy bad, bad, bad”.
Another female teacher, this one three months’ pregnant from Number 36 Primary School told the Minister that on the last day of school (March 30), she sent home two male students who were fighting. Within five minutes, the mother of one of the boys walked in the school and started to argue.
The woman started to assault her and attempted to take it a step higher. She picked up a stool to hit the teacher but was prevented from doing so by other teachers. A report was made to the police after which a medical certificate was requested of the teacher.

The matter is now before the courts as the teacher is pressing for charges to be laid against the individual.
Manickchand, after listening to the two teachers, expressed her disgust over the matters and urged that speedy action be taken to bring the perpetrators to justice. They must ‘face the full force of the law”.
GTU President, Colin Bynoe at the Opening session of the Biennial Conference, had mentioned the growing violence in schools. It [the violence] “has moved from the ordinary use of slingshots, to the use of knives, cutlasses and even bottles”.
He said that in the past when the issue was mentioned, “it was something that mostly the male students were involved in…[but] today, more female students…are involved”.

He noted that students are “so emboldened these days that they actually tell teachers “I am going to beat you”. Bynoe noted that it is important that teachers be on their guard. “The number of assaults and wounding occurring in schools is well known…Several teachers were wounded and assaulted”.
He did mention Ms. Hackim’s assault. “This matter is now before the court of law, after pressures from the Union’s officials and Department of Education”.
He also expressed disgust at the sum of bail –$8,000–that was ordered against a parent who slapped a Rose Hall Town Primary school teacher in the head teacher’s office in March. Bynoe is urging for stronger legislative action against persons who feel that the nation’s teachers must be physically “abused at [the parents’s] whims and fancies”.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/04/14/assaulted-teachers-appear-before-manickchand-at-gtu-conference/

The fact that some students entering the secondary level in Region Ten are subjected to various forms of violence coupled with reports that they are not properly supervised have been reason enough to force members of the Parent/Teacher Association (PTA) of the Ituni Primary School into picketing mode.

The PTA members were so riled-up with concern that they opted to journey to the city yesterday to bring their concern to Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand. Unfortunately for them, by the time they arrived in the city the Minister had already left her Brickdam, Georgetown office to participate in the continuance of the 2012 Budget Debate at Parliament buildings.
This, however, did not stop the members armed with placards from engaging in peaceful picketing exercise on the lawns of the Ministry.

Among them was Pastor Eon McDonald, who revealed that one of his children was among the pupils who participated in the recent sitting of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).
Some 25 students registered to participate in the examination. All of them will have to complete their secondary education miles away from their parents’ care and direct attention, a situation which the members of the PTA have described as nothing less than bothersome.
According to the vocal pastor, “We have taken several complaints to the Education Department in Region Ten…The Ministry sent representatives to meet with us but they are saying that we are not qualified to have a secondary department.”

McDonald said that members of the PTA are continuously lobbying for Ituni students to benefit from a secondary school closer to home. However, the officials, according to him, are often quick to contend that there are not enough teachers to facilitate such a move.
Treasurer of the PTA, Rena Smith, said that Education officials have insisted that no move to introduce a secondary facility would be possible until the district is able to produce at least 200 students over three consecutive years.
She recalled that in years past the primary school was furnished with a Secondary Department (Primary Tops) which catered to pupils leaving the primary level. However, this facility had been discontinued by the Ministry of Education, Smith said.

But according to the protesters, “We need a Secondary Department and there is already an area to facilitate this…They could use the downstairs of the current primary school and we would like a positive response on this. They are trying to tell us that we have to wait until they go to parliament and that they have to lobby for this.”
At the moment the nearest secondary school to Ituni is located some 26 miles away at Kwakwani.  Other schools are further away still, in Linden. And according to Smith there are reports that Ituni students are not treated very well at the distant school dormitories.  She said that at least one student was the subject of a physical assault which left her with a slashed face while another 15-year-old student became pregnant.

“The idea is to have our children close so that they can feel safe and also so that we can monitor them…” Smith said.
A recent meeting with education officials in the district ended with suggestions being made for the provision of transportation to bring children to and from the distant schools and another for two parents to be designated to work in the dorms of the secondary schools so that they could supervise them while away from home.
However, it is the concern of Pastor MacDonald that Ituni is being neglected since according to him “we understand that another school district which did not reach the criteria that they are giving to us, got a secondary department…So what happened to Ituni?”

He said that “for very long nobody has been coming to find out what is going on at our end so we are stepping out to highlight our problem.”
He added that the problems at Ituni extend to the water situation which he believes is capable of transmitting “all sorts of diseases.”
“It has been decades we have been getting brown water through the tap. We have got wrigglers in our water and that is what we have to consume…this is the poor service we are getting.”

In addition to attracting the attention of officers from the nearby Brickdam Police station yesterday, the protesters were also acknowledged by persons within the Education Ministry.
In fact President of the PTA, Ivor Crossman, was invited into the Ministry by an official to share the concerns of the PTA.

According to the protesters they are prepared to continue protesting if no acceptable action is taken to address their plight.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/04/14/ituni-pta-pickets-education-ministry-for-secondary-department/

Concerns that enough is not being done for the disabled faction of the society have been amplified by a number of organisations for the disabled following the unveiling of the 2012 budget two Fridays ago.

However, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, has asserted that “the budget might not be the best guide to determine what it is we are doing for some areas. It would be more actions…”
The Minister has cautioned that persons should be a bit more careful when considering the 2012 budget, adding that “using the budget or specific lines in the budget to determine what we are doing for a particular group” may not be the ideal thing to do.

For instance, the Minister pointed out that even when it comes to addressing the needs of women all such details are not outlined in the budget. “Maybe we need to get there at some point but right now we don’t budget in a way that says exactly what we are doing for women. When we provide water, roads and schools that are close to your homes these are services for women too but they are not cost in the budget as what we are doing for women.”
Similarly, the Minister said that she has been urging people to be careful when it comes to the budget, particularly as it relates to disabled people. “You don’t see next to education ‘X’ dollars for disability needs or for the children who are disabled or for parents who have disabled children.”

According to the Minister, even before the reading of the recent national budget she had devised a plan to hear from parents, students and teachers as it relates to what more can be done to serve their needs.
“You won’t see a cost for that in the budget but we are going to start consulting on how we are going to better serve our disabled persons in the education sector.”

More than $26 billion has been allocated to the education sector this year to cater to immense plans.  Among these, according to Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, will be special emphasis directed to those who are differently abled with a view of empowering them to achieve personal fulfilment thus enabling them to make a productive contribution to society.
He noted that “we have budgeted for the construction of an annexe at the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre which will cater to 60 differently abled students and will be equipped with the essential sanitary facilities, furnishing, and a computer room.”

Further, the training facility will be rehabilitated so as to provide technical and vocational training to the students at the centre, Dr Singh added.
Aimed at improving the delivery of special education in the public education system, the Ministry is looking to incorporate the expertise of two teachers who are currently completing Masters Degrees overseas in the area of Special Needs Education. This is according to Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam.
He said that among a list of 10 areas of focus currently gaining the attention of the Ministry, Special Needs Education is situated prominently. According to him, the Ministry has recognized that there is a lack of trained teachers in this area.  As a result, when the teachers in training return it is expected that their knowledge-base will be utilized with a view of training other teachers.

“Once those teachers come back into the system we will try to use them to get a larger mass of teachers with those skills and hopefully what will happen now, is that the teachers in our mainstream schools will be trained to recognize pupils who have specials needs, so we will be doing the necessary referrals in some cases, and where cases are mild even address those needs within the structures of the classroom.”

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/04/10/budget-cannot-outline-everything-being-done-for-the-disabled-%E2%80%93-manickchand/

The introduction of an ambitious programme, aimed at bolstering performances at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, particularly in the area of Mathematics and English, has already started yielding satisfactory results.

At least this is according to Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, who revealed that there has been evidence of renewed interest, specifically in the area of Mathematics.
“We are sure that since this intervention (commenced) there has been renewed and certainly more interest in Mathematics across the board among teachers, students and parents.”

The Minister, since taking up her designation in the education sector, has introduced a pilot programme which saw Government furnishing both teachers and students at some 36 schools with relevant teaching/learning materials intended to help improve students’ performances at CSEC.  She revealed that it was just recently that a post-CSEC examination was conducted and efforts are still being made to complete the assessment of the results.  However, Manickchand noted that while she does not expect the results to be fantastic, “we will certainly be able to get a better gauge of where we are as a country.”

The Minister revealed that at the moment there is no doubt that there has been “a rebuking of the ‘throwing up your hand syndrome’; if for nothing but that then that programme has been a success.”
However, once the results have been completely assessed, it is the belief of the Minister that the Ministry will be in a better position to ascertain to what extent the programme has made a difference. She nonetheless asserted that “I don’t think that we should rely on results alone to say whether it made a real difference, because if you walk around Guyana you will see people talking about Mathematics a lot more; parents are being a lot more interested in what their children are doing.”

A whopping $85.7 M contract was approved in January by Cabinet, for the Ministry of Education, in the quest to help improve the pass rate in the subject areas of Mathematics and English at CSEC.
According to Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, the sum is intended to go towards the procurement of items to boost students’ learning. These items included: CXC General Maths Book I and II; the Self-Study Guide for CXC; the collection of revision DVDs; the combined past papers from 2008 to 2011; Model Solutions to difficult answers; and Combined Solutions for everything in addition to a geometry set, graph paper and a scientific calculator. Teachers were each provided with individual syllabuses and a collection of the package so that they will be able to effectively work with each child.

The Minister upon assuming office sought to amplify the need for an urgent improvement in the subject areas of English and Mathematics countrywide. The latter mentioned subject area saw a significant decline, reflected in a below 35 per cent pass rate last year, thus suggesting that there is a need for even more attention, according to  the Minister.

Concern for the performance in the subject areas saw the Minister backed by senior education officials in travelling the country to meet with stakeholders ahead of the commencement of the project, which was introduced in December at the target schools. Among the schools participating in the project are 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).

In addition to having trained Mathematics teachers, the schools were chosen based on the fact that their results were good enough in the past two years, and they are therefore deemed to have foundations which can foster the objectives of the ambitious project.
Just over 4,000 students are being targeted, Manickchand noted, even as she explained that the strategic move is expected to see students writing the CSEC examination this year reflecting improved results.
The move, according to her, represents a four-prong partnership, including collaboration between Government, teachers, parents and students. “If we focus on these students a little bit more they are going to be able to pass Mathematics and English,” she confidently asserted.

The Minister revealed that even as efforts are being made to realise improved CSEC performances this year, the Government is working assiduously to achieve universal secondary education.
Already the education sector has been able to realise universal primary education which allows children at the primary age to undertake the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA). The NGSA was conducted across the country last week, allowing for some 18,000 students at primary schools countrywide to participate. This assessment is designed to place students into secondary schools, and according to Minister Manickchand, the Ministry is now faced with the challenge of ensuring that the same number of students who participated in this year’s NGSA are registered for CSEC in the next five years.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/04/08/csec-programme-sparks-%E2%80%98renewed-interest%E2%80%99-in-mathematics/

Chief Justice Ian Chang believes that recent comments by political figures on his decision to quash the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are designed to undermine his office.

The Chief Justice has been the centre of a growing controversy, following his recent ruling that the DPP’s advice to charge Commissioner of Police Henry Greene with rape was irrational.
The Chief Justice was specifically concerned with the comments made by Education Minister Priya Manickchand and Attorney-at-Law Deborah Backer of A Partnership for National Unity.
Manickchand, in calling for Greene to demit office, had expressed disquiet at the ruling of the Chief Justice in the matter involving the Commissioner.

In an interview with the Stabroek News, the former Human Services Minister, who had piloted the Sexual Offences Bill 2010 through Parliament, said that she is worried about the implications Justice Chang’s ruling will have “on other prosecutions or intended prosecutions for rape, even though she agrees that the court had jurisdiction to review a decision by the DPP.”

And Backer, an APNU Member of Parliament, had stated that her party has placed on record its dismay and disappointment at the apparent lack of sensitivity and knowledge revealed by the statements made by the Chief Justice in his ruling.
“On the issue of the Chief Justice’s lack of sensitivity, he must be aware that progressive countries, recognising that the trial of sexual offences often turns out to be the hardest on the victims, have enacted victim-friendly legislation empowering Courts, inter alia, to hold trial in camera, and also forbid the publication of reports of certain details of the alleged act,” APNU pointed out.

The party said that rather than adhere to these modern principles, the Chief Justice quite happily read to the packed court room and by extension the entire country “all the gory details of the alleged rape”.
“These statements show a remarkable lack of reading on the part of the Chief Justice on how women and children react to the barbaric offence of rape. Thursday the 29th day of March, 2012 will remain a black day for all right thinking people of Guyana. We trust that the Director of Public Prosecutions will appeal the decision of the Honourable Chief Justice…” Backer had stated.
Justice Chang believes that these comments, especially from political figureheads, will have far-reaching effects for the integrity of the office of the Chief Justice.

“That particular office and the Chancellor, the appointments are made by the President with the consent of the Leader of the Opposition.”
The Chief Justice said that he does not have a problem with anyone disagreeing with his decision, but to use certain words is worrying.
“You can’t say that it’s disquieting and I don’t read enough, and I’m insensitive.”

According to Chang, what is worrying, are the persons who are making the statements.
“They are representatives of the government and they are representatives of the opposition. These are people who are representatives of the major political parties,” Chang said, adding that he is not so much worried by statements made by others who are critical of his decision.

Justice Chang in defending his ruling has urged those who want to criticize to read his 64-page decision.
“What are the implications of these criticisms? I don’t read? I am incompetent?” Chang asked during a telephone interview with this newspaper.
“If these people are saying these things what are they doing, not undermining the office? It is the kind of language they are using,” he added.

The Chief Justice said that persons can disagree with his decision which he added can be tested in a higher court.
“They are arguing that the court should not interfere with the works of parliament…they are interfering with my work. Let the court correct me, they should not be correcting me as Parliamentarians,” Justice Chang declared.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/04/06/political-comments-undermining-my-office-chief-justice/