As we celebrate workers of all classes in our society today, we at the Ministry of Education salute and celebrate our hard working and dedicated teachers and administrative staff who work ardently everyday to shape the young minds and the future of Guyana. There are no set of words that can amply describe the importance of teachers in any society. The teaching profession is regarded worldwide as the mother of all professions, since it provides the foundation for learning in an individual, upon which all greater academic achievement rests. In other words teachers are the crucial guardians of intellectual life in any society. The Government of Guyana recognizes this, and has always placed great value on our teachers. And we have matched that value with real actions within the last two decades, which has significantly improved the quality of life for our teachers.

Teachers continue to benefit in numerous ways through the partnerships and agreements established by the Ministry of Education in collaboration the Guyana Teachers Union, as together we strive to improve the working conditions of our teachers. Through the shrewd leadership of the GTU and its strategic engagements with the Ministry, along with the commitment of the PPP/C Government, teachers today enjoy the best benefits ever made available to them in the history of Guyana. While there is always room for improvement in all conditions of life, our teachers are being paid the most they have ever been paid in 20 years and enjoy more benefit than ever before. Today more teachers are being trained in Guyana than two decades ago. And very soon we will create history in Guyana when we elevate the teaching profession to its rightful place among the other recognized professions in Guyana, with the introduction of the Professional Standards for Teacher Education.

We look forward to the continued support of the Guyana Teachers Union as we work together to better the working conditions of our teachers. The Ministry of Education remains committed to improving the quality of teacher education in Guyana and ultimately the quality of teachers we place in the education system. Education is one of our nation’s biggest industries, and we as a government will continue to invest in it so that we can raise better generations of Guyanese citizens.

As we reflect on the importance of Labor Day, let us remember the past from which we came, and work assiduously to affect positively the future we will enjoy. Today we celebrate our hard working teachers in a profession that continues to improve through the unremitting commitment of a caring Government. Let us continue the progress we have made so far in this most noble profession, and work in solidarity to build on that progress to make the teaching profession better.

May God bless our teachers and our nation.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/notes/ministry-of-education-guyana/labor-day-message-from-the-honorable-minister-of-education-ms-priya-manickchand/674954722568030/

The more than 100 students  from across the country, who attended the final league of the Annual Science, Mathematics and Technology Fair, held in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam) on Wednesday were reassured by Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, that Guyana’s education system is poised to “take off”. However, Manickchand warned that in order for Guyana to maintain success, it would take a collective effort by all Educational entities and moreso those of the opposition parties to continue to relish in the current successes.
“Look at where we are, what are some of our challenges and be confrontational in addressing those issues.”

Manickchand further promised both students and teachers that her Ministry will work hard, diligently in order to improve the system where improvement is necessary. The Education Minister confessed that while her Ministry will not always get it right, her support would remain relentless.
Speaking on the annual Science Fair, Manickchand said that the science, Mathematics and Technology fair was the most expanded. It allowed students to be prepared for the future.
Manickchand reminded that Guyana’s children have performed excellently in the Science subjects. They have acquired the reputation of their successful performances throughout the Caribbean.
Manickchand added that her Ministry intends to expand IBSE in 20 Primary Schools and the lower grades (1-3) in ten schools.

The use of Science to teach language in ten Schools as well as the establishment of two Science centers and the expansion of Microscience pilot into sixty additional Secondary Schools are all plans for 2014.
Additionally, Manickchand said the establishment of two science centers would be realised.
The Minister reiterated the inclusion of ICT and the expansion of teacher training. She spoke of infusing E-learning in ten Secondary Schools where access to resources is limited.

Manickchand said that her Ministry also hopes to partner with Belize and St. Lucia, and UNESCO to expand the Microscience experiments projects for all of the CXC territories within the Caribbean. Chief Judge, Lois Oliver, said that she was impressed with the quality and caliber of the projects.
Oliver said that Guyana is in safe hands and is willing to embrace the challenges of the evolving society. She said all of the projects are implementable.
The Science, Mathematics and Technology fair was held under the theme “Providing solution for the 21st Century.

Source: (Yannason Duncan) https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/04/24/guyana-earns-regional-reputation-in-sciences/

Come September, the country’s public nursery schools are expected to see an increased influx of children. In fact, based on information emanating from the Ministry of Education, close to 3,000 children, some of whom had never been in the formal education structure, are slated to be plugged into the system when the new school year starts.

However, there are some worrying trends detected among this very young population which may only be resolved through an intensified partnership between Ministry officials and parents. Speaking of this development in the National Assembly during the recent Budget debate, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, said that based on a research conducted among some 700 children poised for entry at the nursery level, there is need for much more collaborative work to be done.

She disclosed that while some of the targeted children were enrolled in Day Care “we found that some of the things that children should know at three (years) six (months)…that only 32 per cent of our children knew.”
According to the Minister it was found that the majority of children assessed were unable to identify basic shapes and numbers, could not recognise and recite their ABCs, were unable to count and weren’t au fait with basic biographical information about themselves such as their names, address and age.
Moreover, the evidently concerned Minister amplified the need for the daunting development to be addressed forthwith, even as she insisted that “for us it is a bit worrying.”
“We believe that with partnership, if we could get parents to do the supportive work at home, we can better prepare our children,” conjectured the Minister.

The Ministry earlier this year announced a revised nursery entry age of children whereby they will from September be able to access school even if they would have turned three in June. Previously a child had to be three years old by March 31 in order to enter Nursery School in September of the same year.
Manickchand therefore acknowledged the role of the Education Ministry to inform parents, in a mass way, “what it is their children need to know and to tell them how it is that they can use their natural environment; not just buying charts and gadgets but your natural environment will teach the things that children need to learn.”

In using the environment as a teaching aid, Manickchand alluded to the stimulation of children’s colour awareness by enlightening them, for instance, to the fact that “the grass is green and the sky is blue; we don’t have to buy a chart for that; bring the red bucket; (tell them) here is mommy’s orange dress…”
Although arousing such awareness is undoubtedly the role of the education system, the Minister emphasised the need for parents to lend support in helping to plot the way forward.  “Even if you can’t read, even if you can’t write, I know (there are) parents (who) spend their lives trying to make their children’s lives better; good parents do that,” Manickchand passionately amplified.

With the anticipated support from parents, Manickchand is confident that the Ministry with its approved $32.3 billion allocation will be able to ensure more enabling education environments for the nation’s children.
Working together with the Ministry of Local Government, she disclosed that the Education Ministry will be seeking to ensure that schools are provided with adequate furniture, among other things, to properly accommodate the young population. Added to this, the Minister disclosed that her Ministry has been able to write its own nursery readers which it will now be able to produce with the approval of its budgetary allocation. “The Budget is going to allow us to print them and give to every single child in nursery (school), so that they can be better prepared,” assured the Education Minister.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/04/24/pre-nursery-school-children-oblivious-to-basic-information-manickchand/

MINISTER of Education Ms. Priya Manickchand yesterday, at Anna Regina Secondary School on the Essequibo Coast, declared open the National Science, Mathematics and Technology Fair 2014.

Theme for the event was ‘Science, Mathematics and Technology: providing solutions for the 21st Century.’

At the opening ceremony, there was representation of the 10 Administrative Regions of Guyana and the Minister said it was the biggest science fair to date.
“We are in a better place than we have ever been in the education system in our country today. Guyana’s education system is at a place in our country’s history where we are poised for takeoff. We can achieve this significant milestone and growth in this sector because of specific and calculated strategic and very conscious investments being made in this sector,” Minister Manickchand said.
She stated further that Guyana has achieved universal primary education and the Education Ministry is currently working to achieve universal secondary education across the country.
“If we are to measure, tangibly, what the Government has done for this sector, in 1992, five percent of the National Budget was spent on education and, in 2013, we utilised 15.9 percent of the National budget. This is the Government’s commitment to see Guyana do better,” she posited.

BETTER COMPENSATIONS
Manickchand also related that “we now have over 70 percent trained teachers within the Education sector and the sector is currently discussing better compensations for the teachers but this cannot be done overnight.”
Assistant Director of the Caribbean Science Foundation (Barbados) and Chief Judge at the Science Fair 2014, Ms. Lois Oliver expressed gratitude to the Ministry for affording her the opportunity to take part in this year’s event and told the parents and students that “being a nerd is cool; because of nerds we have advanced technologically today.”
She also advised the parents to encourage their children in whatever ideas they have concocted and assist them in making it a reality.
The Guyana Chronicle, after the opening, spoke with some of the students about what were exhibited and they treated visitors to informative sessions on their respective projects and the aims.
Some students were delighted at being part of the fair, as they believe that it provides a challenge to their young minds and helps them to increase their knowledge base to become great thinkers and better students.
The exhibits will be judged on presentation, creativity, students’ response to questions and relevance to the development of the environment, originality and economic and environmental benefits to the country.

Source: By Rebecca Ganesh-Ally; http://guyanachronicle.com/2014/04/23/manickchand-opens-biggest-science-fair-to-date-on-the-essequibo-coast

 

With a keen intent on getting value for money, the Ministry of Education has put in place a strategic policy which is designed to garner community support in the quest to achieve value for money.
This notion was recently amplified by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, as she addressed the National Assembly during the recent budget debate.

According to Manickchand, the strategic move is one which will see Ministry officials venturing into communities in which there are plans to undertake education infrastructural work.
“Every time we are going to expand infrastructure, build new schools, we are going to go out, take all our documents with us and have community meetings with all those who will come. Particularly, we would invite parent-teacher associations (PTAs), staff, parents, students, the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs), the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and we will leave with them documents so that they can keep a close eye on what is happening in schools so that we can have quality work,” said the Education Minister.
This move, she said, is seen as important in light of the fact that the Ministry has, in the past, been the beneficiary of works that are less than desirable.

“We recognise that sometimes we get shoddy work…That does not mean that all contractors give us shoddy work but we have been robbed; the country has been robbed a couple of times and we want to make sure that when we do things we get value for money,” asserted Manickchand.
The Ministry is also working towards forging greater collaboration with its stakeholders through the introduction of a website. And according to the Minister there are plans apace to launch the website shortly which will be interactive and offer all visitors education documents, policies, textbooks and even past exam papers.
“It is going to have a feature that will allow children to answer exam papers and then we send them an email with what results they got – what was right and what was wrong,” disclosed the Minister.

This feature, according to her, will cater to children at the levels of Grades One through Six and students from secondary schools will eventually be included too.
Already the Ministry has in place a Live Chat internet forum, which stakeholders could access at www.education.gov.gy every Thursday between the hours of 19:30 hours and 21:00 hours, to interact with the Minister herself or senior officials about issues of concern.
The introduction of the forum was premised on the recognition that there were a number of concerns within the education system, some of which were not gaining the attention of the relevant officials within Central Ministry in a timely manner.

With the introduction of this avenue it is expected that information will reach senior officials at a much faster rate than was obtained in the past.
It is therefore expected that such interactions will lend to the education sector operating even more efficiently.
Stakeholders could interact with the officials via the Ministry’s Facebook page. “These are all things that we have done to make sure that we can hear from the people we serve, so that we can serve them better. These are things that we have done to make sure that we can get our messages out, get our information out there,” said the Minister.
She added that the Ministry has been on a continued focused mission to ‘fine-tune’ its partnership with parents and other stakeholders since according to her, “we are absolutely sure that students in our care will not have as much and be as much as they can be except there is parental or home involvement.”

The Minister was at pains to highlight that “all the children who have done well we can trace it back to a few things, a good school system, sound investment in the education sector and involvement of their families and not necessarily wealth families…”

Source:https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/04/22/strategic-tactic-in-place-to-guard-against-shoddy-work-education-minister/

THE Ministry of Education will be hosting its National Science, Mathematics and Technology Fair 2014 under the theme ‘Science, Mathematics and Technology: Providing Solutions for the 21st century’. This is the final of several such regional events.

According to an advisory from the Ministry of Education, over 100 science projects will be on display from schools across the country.

We would like to encourage the public to support our students as they demonstrate the use of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to solve local school and community problems. Some of the features of the 2014 National Science Fair include an educational movie corner, awareness workshops on Mangroves, Climate Change, Microscience experiments and Interactive Mathematics.

The National Science, Mathematics and Technology Fair 2014 will be held at the Anna Regina Multilateral School – Region 2 from tomorrow April 23, 2014 to Thursday, April 25, 2014 from 10:00 – 15:00 hrs.

The Minister of Education, Hon. Priya Manickchand and ministry officials are expected to be in attendance at the Opening Ceremony, which is scheduled for 10:00 hrs tomorrow.

In keeping with the Persons Living with Disability Act, the Ministry of Education has been feverishly working to ensure that children with special education needs are fully catered for within the public school system.

Speaking in the National Assembly during the recent budget debates, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand made it clear that “we are going to be looking at making sure that our buildings are friendlier, so that we can cater for children with disabilities so that it does not affect their ability to learn.”

In this quest to improve the delivery of special education needs, the Minister said that her Ministry is committed to ensuring that education buildings are designed with those with special needs in mind. This will therefore see buildings being constructed with ramps and even suitable washroom facilities.

“We are committed and we are making sure that every building we build complies with the Person Living with Disability Act…” a passionate Manickchand told the House.
And efforts to improve the delivery of education among those with special education needs have already started since according to the Minister, moves have already been made to relocate the Blind Unit which was once housed at the St. Rose’s Secondary School.  Those students, according to her, have been placed in another friendlier environment since September 2, 2013.

However, the Minister asserted that her Ministry is not by any means satisfied with what has been done with those with special needs education.
“We are not happy with that and we are recognising that we are not doing what we are suppose to do; we are not preparing our children with special education needs as best as we can and making them capable of meeting their maximum potential…we would be the first to tell you that we are not happy with the way the education sector has been catering for students with special education needs,” said Manickchand.

It was for this very reason, she said, that the Ministry had spearheaded a countrywide stakeholders’ consultation, which has helped to inform the work of the Ministry, over the next five years, in this regard.
“People have told us what they want; they want us to make sure we look at how we are preparing our teachers, so one of the things that is going to be done as a matter of priority over the next five years, is to make sure that all of the teachers coming out of CPCE are prepared for integrating special education needs children into the classroom,” assured Manickchand.

It was only earlier this year that the Minister intimated plans to give closer attention to teachers tasked with attending to special needs education children, whereby they are treated on par with other teachers. However, she disclosed that such a move will take some work on the part of the Ministry to ensure that this is realised.
Moreover, moves to ensure equality among teachers will see the Ministry seeking to revise regulations governing the operation of Special Needs teachers.

Currently, Special Needs education teachers are not eligible for promotion, a state of affairs that prompted Minister Manickchand to emphasise that “our teachers who have been teaching (Special Needs) have been extremely kind…but at the end of the day, people want promotion and so on. The system we have now does not allow a teacher teaching in a Special Needs School to be promoted and we are fixing that shortly,” declared the Minister.
She pointed out that the Ministry is intent on making sure that the teaching of special needs is seen as beneficial to teachers. As such, Manickchand disclosed that “…we are looking at what incentives are offered to teachers to deliver this very difficult programme.”

But since there are certainly not enough trained teachers to cater to this crucial area, the Minister said that efforts are being made to have greater focus on specifically training teachers in this regard.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/04/21/improving-special-education-high-on-education-ministry-agenda/

Designed to offer an interactive forum for stakeholders of education, the Ministry of Education on Thursday officially launched an internet Chat Room. The Chat Room, which could be found on the Ministry’s website, www.education.gov.gy, will be accessible every Thursday from 19:30 hoursto 21:00 hours when Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand and/or senior officers will be available to answer various questions pertaining to the delivery of education.

The start of the live Chat Room on Thursday saw the ‘revised nursery entry age’ being the topic of discussion with Minister Manickchand and a number of senior officers engaged in the very interactive forum.
Many stakeholders who signed in to participate Thursday night commended the move by the Ministry.
This publication understands that although the once weekly Chat Room will have a particular theme to guide the discussion, there will also be allowance for other matters of interest to be discussed.

The introduction of the Chat Room was premised on the recognition that there were a number of concerns within the education system, some of which were not gaining the attention of the relevant officials within Central Ministry in a timely manner. With the introduction of this avenue it is expected that information will reach senior officials at a much faster rate than was obtained in the past.
It is therefore expected that such interactions will lend to the education sector operating even more efficiently. “We believe we can engage each other on the important issues of the sector in a civilised,” said the Ministry in a statement of the Chat Room.

The Ministry, in a statement, has said that “as servants of our children, their parents and our dear country, we believe that it is absolutely important to have our programmes and policies and their implementation informed by the views of your views.” Against this backdrop, the Ministry cited the importance of hearing from stakeholders, parents in particular, about the   issues affecting the education of their children.

In addition to face to face meetings in communities, the Ministry has established a hotline which persons can call to report urgent matters. Added to this the ministry has created a Facebook page which currently has in excess of 10,000 followers and serves as yet another means of reaching out to stakeholders.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/04/13/education-ministry-introduces-forum-to-interact-with-stakeholders/

– as $32.3B approved

Following copious scrutinising questions from the Parliamentary Opposition, the $32.3 billion allocated to the Ministry of Education was on Wednesday approved by the National Assembly, effectively dodging the threat of being slashed from the 2014 National Budget.

The passage of the Ministry’s allocation is expected to clear the way for a number of projects to be implemented, including the newest feature of a $10,000 grant to parents to cater to the schooling needs of each of the their children attending public schools.  This will of course be in addition to the school uniform voucher and the other support that have been afforded by Government in the past.

In fact, the Minister has asserted that with the passage of the allocation “we can move assiduously on some of the key areas such as, the improvement of infrastructure, curriculum development, revising and establishing new learning materials, teacher training, special education, information and communication technologies, among others earmarked in our Strategic Plan 2014-2018.”
She is moreover convinced that the sector, and by extension the country, is poised for further ‘positive impact’ which will lend to further growth.

The Minister during her contribution to the Budget debate on Monday made a point of emphasizing that although plausible improvements have been realised in the Education Sector, particularly in terms of examination results, “we are not happy with 34 per cent pass in English, we want to see 100 per cent of our children that we enroll and sign up for exams passing.  We will get there because we can; we can plan for it, we can strategise for it and we will fund it,” said the Minister as she appealed for good sense to prevail among the Opposition to facilitate the approval of her Ministry’s allocation.
“It is we that can be trusted to take the nation’s children forward, we have shown how we can do that,” added a passionate Manickchand.

According to her, the Education Ministry has not been silent about the results obtained in Mathematics and English at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination but has openly spoken of its concerns relating to these results. “We tell the nation how unhappy we are with some of these grades…” said Manickchand as she noted that the results have not all been daunting.  “We know last year that out of eight awards granted by the Caribbean Examination Council, our Guyanese children were given five…” recalled Manickchand.

She went on to remind the House of the performance of Yogeeta Persaud of the Anna Regina Multilateral School, who was bestowed with the award for Best Overall Student; and the fact that Cecil Cox and Sasha Woodruff, both of Queen’s College, won awards for the best performances in the Sciences and Business Education, respectively.
Rafena Mustapha of the Saraswati Vidya Niketan Secondary School; was also the proud recipient of an award for her performance in the Humanities.

And of course an award went to Zimeena Rasheed, also of the Anna Regina School, who made Regional history when she undertook 20 subjects at one sitting, and came out being the best performer in Vocational Education.
Manickchand in bragging-rights mode, amplified that “the only things we didn’t get were the short story writing (award), the Best Performer in Visual Arts 2-Dimensional and the best performer Visual Arts 3-Dimensional and we are going for them…We are going to get all eight of these awards before the next five years are over,” added the confident Education Minister.

She further went on to amplify to the House that “from 2006 to 2013, except for 2010, Guyana has brought home, through our children because of the investment we have been making in them, the best overall performer for the Region.”

Source: 

… as Minister tells of Guyana Learning Channel being the envy of other Caribbean states

THE Guyana Learning Channel continues to be the envy of other countries in the Caribbean, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said in the National Assembly Wednesday night.

She said the Learning Channel was, to date, the only one of its kind in the Caribbean, and some CARICOM members states had even approached the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, to seek advice on how they can replicate this type programme in their own territories.
She made the comments while responding to one of several questions from Opposition Member of Parliament and Shadow Education Minister, Amna Ally, as well as other Opposition Parliamentarians. This was shortly before the estimates for current and capital expenditures of $32.3B for the Ministry of Education was passed unopposed.
Minister Manickchand had been asked about the cost of the channel which is a satellite communication network that facilitates the production and nationwide broadcast of educational programmes.

The network reaches all communities in Guyana and the service is provided by Television Guyana (TVG) which is said to be the only company in Guyana that has the capability of uploading programme information to satellites and then downloading the programme to receivers countrywide.
The contract caters for National Center for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) to pay to TVG the equivalent of US$15,000 monthly, plus VAT.
Minister Manickchand disclosed that construction of three new secondary schools will begin this year, under the Secondary Education Improvement Project.

These are the Good Hope Secondary that will provide for 800 students from the Good Hope/ Lusignan area, the Yarrowkabra Secondary that will accommodate 800 students from the Upper East Bank Demerara area, and the Parfaite Harmonie Secondary which will provide secondary education to one thousand children in Region 3 .
The sum of $55M, Minister Manickchand said, has been allocated for construction work to commence on these three schools and they are expected to be completed by mid-2016.
Among other allocations approved is one for $488M for the purchase of exercise books and text books for both primary and secondary school children.
Minister Manickchand said that the significant allocation is to be used to provide exercise books for every child in the country, and purchase and procure text books for both primary and secondary school children.
She said, “What we want to do is to make sure by this provision this year is that every single primary school child has basic text books in Maths, English, Social Studies, Sciences and a Reader, and that every single secondary school child has the relevant Maths, English and Science text, and some foreign languages text books.”
She disclosed also that under Education Subventions and Grants, the sum of $3,490,447 has been allocated to cater for the more than 188,000 students who will each receive $10,000 as a cash grant for the very first time in the history of Guyana.

Manickchand said the modus operandi for distribution of the grant is yet to be finalised, but the aim will be to distribute it smoothly, with transparency and accountability.
The sum of $205M has been allocated to the NCERD for purchasing of mini science kits which can be substitutes for a complete science lab; for management training of Heads and Deputy Heads of schools to enable them to better manage their schools; for scripts for the learning Channel which have a local bias; and for training in Spanish and Portuguese, among other elements of its mandate.
The budget also provides, under the National Education Policy, the sum of $30M which will be used to purchase a number of vehicles, including two 29-seater buses which will be used to transport children living on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway to and from nursery, primary and secondary schools at the Kuru Kuru educational complex.

Minister Manickchand disclosed that a few years ago the International Labour Organization (ILO) funded a partnership between the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education to provide transportation and meals for children living along the highway, so that they were more likely to attend school.
She said that programme was massively successful but the funding had come to an end.
Government will however be taking up the slack by purchasing the buses to continue to take these children to school.
Government, she said, will also continue to provide meals for them.
The children of the David Rose Centre for the Handicapped who have special education needs, and who generally have difficulties with using the public transportation system, will also be provided with a bus by the Ministry of Education for transportation to and from school.
The sum of $30M had also been allocated to train teachers on how to use Readers developed by the Ministry of Education for primary and secondary school children.

Minister Manickchand explained that the prohibitive cost of text books has prevented government from giving a text book to a child, thus possibly limiting the learning that the child can have.
As a result the Ministry had embarked on writing some of its own Readers, including an entire Nursery series called Roraima Readers, and a series called the Atlantic Readers for children from Grades 1 to 6.
The Readers, which are being tested now, have flash cards, wall charts and other visual learning aids which are aligned with not only the curriculum, but with international literacy standards and guidelines.
The sum of $30M will be used for training of teachers and stakeholders about how they can use the Readers effectively .

Source: (By Clifford Stanley) https://guyanachronicle.com/2014/04/11/32-3b-education-ministry-allocation-approved-unanimously