Mae’s graduation

The 2018 graduating class of Mae’s Schools was charged by former Education Minister Priya Manickchand to envision the Guyana they would like to live in and involve themselves in work that would get the country there.
The students were congratulated for their hard work and told that they were already winners as millions of children across the world are unable to complete their primary education.
Manickchand pointed out to the graduating class that they are all intelligent students who could and must do well where ever they go.

She used statistics to show that schools all across the country are doing well and pointed out that children that topped the region at CXC had come Anna Regina, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) and New Amsterdam, Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). She urged the graduates to go on and shine and involve themselves in the civic life of the country so that together we could take Guyana forward.
Manickchand especially recognised Maefield Rodrigues, who she said is a pioneer in the private school industry. She hailed the teachers for giving consistently good results to those they teach but implored them to keep consciously examining their methods for relevance and effectiveness.

Nalia Rahaman, 11, of Westfield Prep, is the country’s top student at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) examinations, having secured a perfect score of 529. The elated student explained that she was very happy to have been informed that she had secured the top spot this year. Rahaman sat the examination at a tender age of 10 with the aspiration of becoming an author.

The top student for Region One (Barima-Waini) was Romario De Souza; from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), it was Alex Muntaz; from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), it was Darren Ramphal; from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Kaydee Ali prevailed; as did Anne Khemraj from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Rajiv Babulall from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), Kenneth Edwards from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Lotasha Stanislaus from Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), Nikolai Kissoon from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), and Shakina Mc Gregor from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice)

Source: https://guyanatimesgy.com/envision-guyana-the-way-would-like-to-live-former-education-minister/
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Source: https://guyanatimesgy.com/manickchand-challenges-students-to-reject-prejudices-for-a-better-guyana/

Following a Facebook post by former Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, concerning the delay in publishing the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) results, the Ministry of Education has announced that the results will be made public on Thursday, June 28, 2018.

According to the former Minister of Education, “The NGSA ( common entrance) results have been ready and available for publication for over a week now. Most already know which school and which child topped, who got second and third etc etc. Yet the nation is made to wait on the publication of the results. The Gov’t has no clue and is clearly unconcerned by how much parents, teachers and children invest in the education of our students. This kind of contempt for the very people on whose already weak backs the Minister climbs to get her enormous and undeserved salary and perks and her education, which she is now pursuing, is unacceptable and heartless. Our children deserve timely results that have not been tampered with. Release the results NOW!”

Shortly thereafter, in a statement, the Ministry said that the Minister of Education will make the announcements at 13:00 hrs in the boardroom of the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD), Kingston, Georgetown.

The NGSA was written by 14,551 students in late March this year.

Source: https://citizensreportgy.com/?p=5784

“Spread love, not hate” is the mantra that rang out during Guyana’s first gay pride parade, which took place on June 3, 2018. It was an event that allowed the country’s LGBT community the opportunity to step out of the cloak of invisibility and claim their right to be proud of who they are and who they choose to love:

The festivities kicked off at the Square of the Revolution in the capital city of Georgetown, with participants wearing rainbow coloured garb and dancing to soca music as they marched in solidarity against hate and bigotry:

Anal sex (commonly known as “buggery” in many Caribbean territories) is still illegal in Guyana, despite the landmark rulings in the Caleb Orozco case in Belize in 2016, and the more recent Jason Jones case in Trinidad and Tobago, both of which deemed the criminalisation of sodomy unconstitutional. Both cases were not without controversy and negative reactions, region-wide — and neither was Guyana’s gay pride parade.

Netizens were quite vocal about their opposing views. In once Facebook thread, Yolanda Adams left a scathing comment that reflected just how much of a role religion plays in the issue:

Mr President stand your ground, if you only promote this act, the country will be curse[d] because God is totally against it. He has destroy[ed] a nation already because of this act and hasn’t changed. These are not the days to please mankind, your first duty is to protect the inncocent (sic) children. Because if you don’t you will answer to God.
So don’t make decisions on Votes, God put you there not man.
So please put God first.

Shanna Leaona Patterson was also against the revocation of the law:

This government stands a better chance if they legalize small quantities of marijuana instead of antimen so they had better choose wisely

The Guyanese term for a male homosexual is an “anti-man”.

Facebook user Brenda Oliver had this to say:

People just trying a thing that will not pass in Guyana. Guyana is not America

Other Facebook users thought the event was a blatant contradiction of the country’s laws, and there was a lot of discussion about religious damnation. One commenter suggested that the country had other issues to resolve — race relations, for example — that were more pressing. Those in support of the parade — or at least those reserving judgement — appeared to be in the minority.

For Guyana’s LGBT community, however, the event was a first step against the marginalisation they face because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Member of Parliament Priya Manickchand, who supports the community’s efforts, said that “people should be able to make their own choices”, and that the government had no place in people’s bedrooms.

Her statements attracted online support.

Facebook user Shannon Andre Persaud wrote:

I really can’t tolerate people against the LBGTQ community. What a tremendous step it was to see this embraced in Guyana but not of course without the ignorant trolls. But instead of engaging with discriminative and uneducated people, I unfriended and problem solved! Love is love ❤️ And this world could do with less hatred and discrimination and lots more love and humanity. #isupportthelbgtqcommunity

There was also some advocacy on Twitter:

However, there is strong resistance. At a conference the day before the gay pride parade, members of the Georgetown Ministers’ Fellowship expressed their displeasure by threatening to withhold their votes during elections. The Christian community comprises more than 60% of Guyana’s population and, as is the case in other regional territories, is lobbying against overturning age-old buggery laws. The Fellowship even threatened to block the parade, but with a strong police presence, there were no incidents.

Simpson, who attended the conference as a representative of the gay community, indicated that LGBT citizens were still waiting on a 2015 campaign promise of legislative change:

We are voting, tax paying law abiding citizens like everyone… We are not asking for anything special. We should enjoy protection from discrimination.

Source: https://globalvoices.org/2018/06/18/guyanas-lgbt-community-hosts-its-first-ever-gay-pride-parade/

In a country where buggery remains illegal and gay rights are frowned upon by many, LGBTQ persons and supporters wore their rainbows proudly as they marched through city streets at Guyana’s inaugural Pride Parade on Saturday.

Pride Parades have different purposes globally but for Guyana, it was just meant to be a platform for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queer individuals to express themselves.

And that they did in grand style. The revelers, who were decked in ostentatious costumes and some in heels, danced to the rhythms of soca music as they moved from Parade Ground through Church Street and onto the Square of the Revolution in the capital city.

Member of Parliament (MP) Priya Manickchand was there to show her personal support. She said: “Priya Manickchand supports the decriminalisation of personal sexual relations” but she was quick to condemn any form of rape by any individual.

Manickchand noted that the time is now to have serious widespread conversations with the aim of developing solutions to issues affecting the LGBTQ community and she urged the Government to pilot such discussions.

The parade was organised by the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), the Guyana Rainbow Foundation (GuyBo) and Trans United.

Director of SASOD, Joel Simpson hailed the initiative a major success and promised that next year’s parade will be better.

While the parade was all smiles and laughter for the community, Simpson said it sends a strong message to legislators and Government officials.

“We think three years into Government, it’s time that we have more than that [talks],” he stated, adding that “we want to see action and we want action now.”

The parade concluded by nightfall without incident but many curious onlookers lined the streets to steal a glance of the moving party, and some of them, had unpleasant things to say about the LGBTQ community.

Anil Persaud, SASOD’s Homophobia(s) Education Coordinator, urged the naysayers to ‘just let people be’.

His sentiments were echoed by many of the community’s members and supporters.

Jade Mitchell expressed: “everybody deserves rights, no matter who they are, no matter their sexual preference.”

Kevon Carter was very pumped about the celebratory event and he urged Guyanese to practice love instead of hate.

In addition to the rainbow flag, the Golden Arrowhead was a key symbol at the parade as a gentle reminder that Guyanese are supposed to live as One People, One Nation and with One Destiny.

Source: Devina Samaroo, https://newsroom.gy/2018/06/02/spread-love-not-hate-guyanas-first-gay-pride-parade-hailed-a-success/

The Ministry of Education, yesterday, kicked off the first in a series of Public Consultation Forums on grade retention, automatic promotions and corporal punishment in schools. Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand was accompanied by several high level officers from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and met with school administrators and parents at the New Amsterdam Secondary School (NAMS) in Berbice.

During the feedback sessions, it was evident that most of the educators present, were not in favour of the automatic promotions policy, and in more than one way or another, sent a signal of their rejection of the policy to the subject minister and her senior officers that were present.
Region Six Education Officer,  Shafiran Bhajan, noted that given the investment in education, “we must have returns…We know when the circulars on Grade Retention was issued, it was a time when the returns on the investment was not there at the secondary level”.
She noted that Universal Secondary Education was the ultimate goal of the MOE, “but we found it was not only about access but graduation rates, and drop- outs; and we found that the retention and repetition rates were so high…”

“Today our Minister is taking a second look at the investments at the secondary level of education and from what we have seen, she wants every child to graduate…you are fortunate to be at this forum where you can give…You are the players at the school level and would seem that sometimes because of high repetition rates, utilisation of resources, including space, time, human-teacher resources. “Today you have an opportunity to say what you have to say with regards to the two circulars”.

Manickchand said, “We are telling you where we are and want to hear whether it is working or not working and what you [the teachers] think we can do”. She urged the participants to say how they feel about the issues. She said that the sessions and consultation forum would be recorded.

A Lower Corentyne Secondary School administrator noted how lower- grade, low- performing secondary schools have enormous challenges on the policy.
He added, “Not enough was done to reach out to members of the community and as such, parents do not understand the meaning of the policy because what has been felt was that the No Child Left Behind policy did not encourage children to study because they knew they would be promoted anyway”.
He stated that the policy should be revised, “and get things that were working…Not all the children will understand the true meanings of success until they face a little bit of failure.”

A teacher from Corentyne Comprehensive Secondary supported the Retention system “simply because you find that when these children go to Grade Eleven, and they have entered for CSEC Exams, you have serious problems there…They will not meet the criteria but because of the CSEC criteria and policy, we are forced to enter these students…

“If we are going to keep ‘putting over’ these children when they reach Grade Eleven we will have serious problems”.

The teacher added that retention of students and keeping them back when they fail will “help them” even though it will place more expenses on the family….but in the long run we will be doing a good [thing] for these children”.

Speaking about the remediation ‘after- school’ programme that was instituted by the MOE to cater for poor- performers by keeping them back for one hour after school to do Maths and English, the teacher noted that the children are exhausted at the end of the school day to participate in such a programme. “They are in school all day and they know they have to stay back for Math…but at 2:30 [pm] when the remedial teacher is there to start the lessons, 90 per cent of the children are out the gate, because they are tired, or hungry.

Most of these children who need remediation are children from the poor homes and they are hungry at 2:30pm”. The teacher recommended that a snack be provided for these students.

Another teacher shared her experience on the negatives of the automatic promotion system. She contended that while a group of Third Formers was writing the National Grade Nine Examinations (NGNA), the “children went to sleep after they were given the exam papers.”

A teacher of Canje Secondary School said that even though there is the automatic promotion policy, students are “dropping out by the tons”. Parents, she noted, give the teachers phone numbers and cell phone numbers “but we are [still] not getting in contact with them”.

One teacher was bold enough to describe the Automatic Promotion policy “a national disaster…causing pandemonium”.
He noted that the policy has opened a way for “indiscipline and caused tremendous stress on teachers because of the indiscipline…brought the standards of the school down” due to the poor performance rates.

Manickchand listened keenly to all of the views of the teachers, most of whom were in favour of retaining students who fail, in the same class. She questioned teachers present as to why some of them are not doing the remedial programme.

Some of the answers were, that the students are too tired to work in the afternoons after school; payment for teachers who teach an hour after school; as well as providing snacks for students since many of them are hungry and cannot concentrate.
Manickchand later met with parents on the matter of automatic promotions. Similar consultations are planned for the other regions in the country.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/05/24/manickchand-gathers-teachers-and-parents%E2%80%99-views-on-automatic-promotion/

Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) and former Education Minister, Priya Manickchand on Tuesday underscored the recognition and equality that are enshrined in Guyana’s Constitution as it relates to women. However, she observed that even though much has been done to advance women’s rights, legislative changes are needed to ensure that women are treated equally to fully maximise their potential.

The MP made these comments at the hosting of an event to mark International Women’s Day 2018 at Freedom House organised by the Women Progressive Organisation (WPO) of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) entitled, “Women Speak: The status of Women in Guyana 2018.”
Manickchand pointed to several gaps that existed which affect the full realisation of female rights.

Reforms
She urged reforms to the divorce laws, noting that such separations require “fault-based” reasoning. The former Minister also said that for division of property, a woman was entitled to half of what the couple acquired together if she was working, but was only entitled to one-third if she worked “inside the home”. This, Manickchand contends, puts women at a disadvantage since domestic chores can also be considered work.
She observed that while the country’s major political parties were able to come together and pass landmark legislation that favoured the advancement of both young and mature females, there are aspects within our laws that do not address the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) females. The MP believes that there should be adjustments as these persons can contribute to society. Some of the other progressive advances, she noted, were the Sexual Offences Act, Family Court, Legal Aid and adjustments to Married Persons Act to give common-law spouses ownership rights after five years.

Support for CJ, Chancellor
At the same time, she renewed calls for the confirmed appointments of Justice Roxane George, SC, and Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards to the posts of Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Judiciary. Manickchand said that these appointments reflected a situation where a female was being replaced by a man, noting that this was a good example of how women’s rights were “reflected on paper” only.
“Never hold back your talents and capabilities because they are saying, ‘she’s too pushy’,” the MP encouraged.
Tuesday evening’s event was hosted by fellow MP Gail Teixeira, who told the round table gathering that much of the rights women would have attained in the past were been eroded, especially with some 2000 working women being affected directly in the sugar industry. She also stressed that no bill in the National Assembly was passed to advance the rights of women.

Observing that there were still gaps in the areas of politics and health, Teixeira said women must stand up for rights if they want democracy, progress, and peace. Other speakers such as Coretta McDonald, President of Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC); Psychologist Dr Dawn Stewart and MP Gillian Burton-Persaud all gave resounding and moving speeches that urged women to demand their right places at the same level with men so that they could advance their causes.
They also encouraged female-folk to value themselves and to take note of their mental health. Other women speakers included rice farmer Bibi Mohamed, who noted the challenges of rice cultivation, and Bibi Shareeda Ali, the wife of a dismissed Wales sugar worker. Ali said that most of all, she wanted her children to be educated and workers not having jobs meant that they would be subjected to a life of poverty.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo was the only male who addressed the audience of women from various walks of life. He noted Guyanese must work together to confront the challenges that women face and observed that programmes such as WoW (Women of Worth) have done much to advance females. He stressed that mothers have a role to play in reducing race-based stereotypes so that Guyana could be a more united society.
International Women’s Day was observed on March 8. (Shemuel Fanfair)

Source: https://guyanatimesgy.com/legislative-improvements-needed-to-advance-womens-equality-opposition-mp/

People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member of Parliament (MP) Priya Manickchand has strongly defended the decision made by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to reject the two nominees put forward by President David Granger to fill the substantive vacancies in the offices of the Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Judiciary respectively.

Manickchand, an Attorney-at-Law and former Government Minister, also described President David Granger’s assertions about the Opposition trying to undermine the judicial system due to its non-approval of the top judicial appointments as “unfair” and “far from the truth”. She spared no effort in chastising the coalition Government for attempting to portray a bad image of the Opposition, as she explained that the President had his opportunity to agree to substantive judicial appointments in the past, but never did.
“For all the time that the Peoples National Congress (PNC) has been in Opposition, whenever under the new constitution the chance arose for them to confirm or reject the nominees of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP/C) presidents, they refuse. So we are talking about 12 years,” she stated. She made this comment on Television Guyana (TVG) Under the Microscope programme, where the issues surrounding these top judicial appointments were discussed and debated at length.

Manickchand also called into question the direct statements made by the country’s head of state in regard to this issue, explaining that the president was leader of the Opposition from 2011 to 2015. “He refused to agree to the nominations put up by the president of this country for chancellor and chief justice. And for all the time that he has been president, he took three years, almost, to come and give a name. So (there has been) a month of nothing, considering the stalling up they have done in this process,” she opined.
The Opposition MP said while everyone would like to see that these appointments are made quickly, it would be reckless of the Opposition Leader to agree or fail to give his agreement without checking on the information that is available for the suggested candidates.

While there have been criticisms about Jagdeo’s silence on his reasons for rejecting the nominees, the former minister said Jagdeo may have good reasons for so doing.
Manickchand said, “I think it’s not a bad practice. I think I heard Mr. Jagdeo saying he wouldn’t like to drag people’s names through the mud. And I think that might be an almost bashful thing, because he doesn’t want to do damage to a person who, through no fault of his own, is placed on a national stage. But of course with the exception of accepting it.”

Justice Kenneth Benjamin was nominated for the position of Chancellor of the Judiciary, while Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, the current acting chancellor, has been nominated for the position of Chief Justice.
Concerns have been raised by the Bar Association in Belize about Benjamin’s failure, up to recently, to clear a backlog of writing his decisions.

Two weeks ago, Jagdeo, in a letter addressed to the President, said that after having duly considered the nominations of Justice Benjamin and Justice Cummings-Edwards under Article 127 (2) of the Constitution, he is unable to offer his agreement for their appointments.

However, the Opposition Leader has since indicated his willingness to further engage the President on substantive appointments to the top judicial positions.

To this end, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, subsequently said Government will be going ahead with “meaningful consultations” between the two sides, as provided for in the Constitution.

“Mr Jagdeo’s rejection is constitutional, the President’s powers are also constitutional; and there is a provision in the law which provides that in the event there cannot be agreement…then there is a second level which now requires meaningful consultations. So I believe that is the next step we will go to,” Minister Harmon had said.
According to Article 127 (2) of the Constitution, “If the office of Chancellor or Chief Justice is vacant…then, until a person has been appointed…, those functions shall be performed by such other of the Judges as may be appointed by the President”.

Guyana’s Constitution requires the Opposition Leader’s approval before the President’s nominees can be appointed to those two top judicial positions.