Government has begun consultations to gather input into the possibilities of abolishing corporal punishment in the school system.

Over the weekend, on national televisions, Education Minister Priya Manickchand held a panel discussion which included the likes of Dominic Gaskin, Executive Member of the Alliance for Change (AFC); Karen De Souza, Head of Red Thread and Jennifer Cumberbatch, Headteacher of Winfer Gardens Secondary.
According to the Education Minister, while several countries have abolished corporal punishment in the school system, others including the United States are still at ‘loggerheads’, as to whether this should be eliminated or retained.

“Canada as recently as 2004, after a case went to the Supreme Court, banned it across the country and the US decided that it was not a breach of the Constitution,” she is quoted as saying in a government statement.
While Poland has been the first country to have abolished corporal punishment at school, Guyana is yet to take a stance on the issue, hence the need for countrywide consultations.
Thus far, all parties have agreed that no child below Grade Two, should be beaten in schools and this has since been a clause in the Bill, which is yet to be taken to Parliament to be made into Law.
“We are at a place where, because of consultations, we have come to a conclusion that our children younger than Grade Two should not be beaten in school and we have also laid down rules about how this is to happen,” Minister Manickchand said.

Dominic Gaskin, while making a clear point that it should not be abolished, however, stated that corporal punishment should be regulated, whereby, if the need so arises that children should be scolded in schools, it must be carefully done and monitored by the relevant authorities.
“I know there are a lot of people who are against it and I respect that view. Corporal punishment is a system; I think there is a place for it. However, abusive behaviour against students, I am totally against it,” he said.
Jennifer Cumberbatch, however, had different views and supported and maintained that corporal punishment should be retained in the school system, noting that children are becoming more insolent to teachers.
“I have no problem if someone were to give a child two lashes, that is not abuse…I am in agreement with those persons who feel that there should be no corporal punishment, if it is abusive, but we have to do something to stem that tide, because our children will become like those first world countries where children talk to their teachers anyhow,” she opined.

She added that corporal punishment at most schools is the last resort, as there is currently a  manual which governs how teachers are to maintain order and discipline in schools.
Ms. De Souza in her input to the discussion, stated that while the issue can be challenging, especially for teachers, corporal punishment should not be allowed, as it defeats teachers’ professional standards and ethics.
Meanwhile, the issue of corporal punishment being a defeat to teachers’ professionalism was defended by Cumberbatch, as she stated that teachers are concerned about children and as such, would not scold a child to an extent of being physically abusive.

In addition, she stressed that it is challenging for a teacher to function in a classroom where children are ill-mannered and disorderly.

Consultations on the abolition of corporal punishment in the school system, is a fulfillment of a commitment made during the submission of Guyana’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to the United Nations Rights Commission on several human rights conventions in 2010.

The consultations will be organised by Minister Manickchand and will take place in the broader context of consultations, which will continue on the draft Education Bill of 2012.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/03/27/discussions-begin-on-corporal-punishment-ban-in-schools/

-wider consultations to begin shortly

As Government moves to begin a series of rigorous consultations, garnering the inputs of the grassroots with respect to abolishing corporal punishment in the school system, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand held a panel discussion on the latter on Saturday evening on the National Communications Network (NCN). The panel discussion, which also saw the inputs of Dominique Gaskin, Executive Member of the Alliance for Change (AFC); Karen De Souza, Head of Red Thread; and Jennifer Cumberbatch, Headteacher, Winfer Gardens Secondary, discussed whether corporal punishment should be eliminated.

According to the Education Minister, while several countries have abolished corporal punishment in the school system, others, including the United States, are still at ‘logger heads’ as to whether this should be eliminated or retained.
“Canada, as recently as 2004, after a case went to the Supreme Court, banned it across the country and the US decided that it was not a breach of the Constitution,” she said.
While Poland has been the first country to have abolished corporal punishment at school, Guyana is yet to take a stand on the issue, hence the need for countrywide consultations.

Thus far, all parties have agreed that no child below Grade Two should be beaten in schools, and this has since been a clause in the Bill, which is yet to be taken to Parliament to be made into law.
“We are at a place where, because of consultations, we have come to a conclusion that our children younger than Grade Two should not be beaten in school and we have also laid down rules about how this is to happen,” Minister Manickchand said.

Dominique Gaskin, while making a clear point that it should not be abolished, stated however that corporal punishment should be regulated, whereby, if the need arises, it must be carefully done and monitored by the relevant authorities.
“I know there are a lot of people who are against it and I respect that view. Corporal punishment is a system; I think there is a place for it. However, abusive behaviour against students I am totally against,” he said.
Jennifer Cumberbatch maintained that corporal punishment should be retained in the schools system, noting that children are becoming more insolent to teachers’ in schools.

“I have no problem if someone were to give a child two lashes, that is not abuse…I am in agreement with those persons who feel that there should be no corporal punishment, if it is abusive, but we have to do something to stem that tide, because our children will become like those first world countries where children talk to their teachers anyhow,” she said.
She added that corporal punishment at most schools is the last resort, as there is currently a teachers’ manual which governs how teachers are to maintain order and discipline in schools.

Ms. De Souza, in her input to the discussion, stated that while the issue can be challenging, especially for teachers, corporal punishment should not be allowed, as it defeats teachers’ professionalism.
But Cumberbatch disagrees, as she stated that teachers are concerned about children, and as such, would not scold a child to the extent of being physically abusive.

In addition, she added that it is challenging for a teacher to function in a class room where children are ill-mannered and disorderly, as it would be difficult for a teacher to be respected and for the curriculum to move forward.
Consultations on the abolishment of corporal punishment in the school system is a fulfillment of a commitment made, during the submission of Guyana’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), to the United Nations Rights Commission on several human rights conventions in 2010.

The consultations will be organised by Education Minister Priya Manickchand.

Source: (GINA) http://guyanachronicle.com/2012/03/26/panel-discussions-held-on-corporal-punishment-in-school-system

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand says ministry views the Auditor General’s report as a management tool and will do its best to ensure that the pronouncements made in the report are addressed and that there are no repeats.

The 2010 report commented on a number of issues concerning the ministry, including a $110 million contract for the procurement of textbooks, the process for which circumvented the controls of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003.

Former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education Pulandar Kandhi, said he has prepared his comments to the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on the damning disclosures of the 2010 Auditor General’s report, made public on February 10.

Manickchand pointed out that much of what the Auditor General commented on was procedural and not substantial, even as she said the ministry will be addressing all of the concerns the Auditor General’s report has raised.

Speaking to Stabroek News last week, Kandhi, who served as permanent secretary at the ministry for a number of years, including in 2010, said that he cannot disclose his comments just yet, since doing so would prejudice the process to which he could be part.

Kandhi said too that while the present Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Delma Nedd, will be the one to face the grilling by the PAC after it begins to hear submissions from the various government agencies, departments and regions, it is possible that he is co-opted to help her in answering questions. Kandhi is now on the Teaching Service Commission.

Stabroek News also made attempts to speak to Nedd, but these attempts proved futile.

In very stern language, the Auditor General’s report for 2010 flayed the ministries of Education and Finance over a $110 million textbook procurement deal, which it said employed a strategy to defeat the controls of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act of 2003.

The report said the Education Ministry had, on the basis of sole sourcing, sought and obtained approval from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to purchase $110 million worth of textbooks from a local supplier. A similar arrangement had been worked out the previous year with the same supplier who was not named in the report.

According to the 2010 report, the transaction exhibited features which constituted serious breaches and were dangerous.

The report said that the NPTAB granted approval on December 29, 2010 for the textbooks deal. Thereafter, two cheques were drawn on the Consolidated Fund in relation to three vouchers.

One cheque for $40 million was written on December 31, 2010 but not paid until May 4, 2011. The other cheque was written on December 31, 2010 for $70.2 million but not paid until September 20, 2011.

“As can be noted, payments took place four and eight months into the new year, which confirms the use of a strategy to defeat the controls enunciated in the FMA Act, by the withdrawal of sums appropriated in one year and holding them for extended periods for spending during the life of another Appropriation Act,” the report noted.

The report said it is was even more disturbing that such a serious breach is aided and abetted by the Ministry of Finance, through a process where stale dated cheques are extended for use at current dates. “This was the case of the second cheque, which was updated on 9 June 2011,” the report declared.

The report said that following the payment of $70.2 million on September 20, 2011, the supplier refunded the sum of $30.2 million on a Scotiabank manager’s cheque on the same day.

“Consequently it became apparent that the intention of the ministry was to pay over only $40 million, but was constrained by the sum written on the instrument on hand. Such dangerous accounting could only leave the ministry, and government as a whole, at risk.

The situation was compounded by the fact that to date the ministry has failed to repay the sum refunded by the supplier, to the Consolidated Fund,” the report said.

Further, the report pointed out that the contract executed with the supplier was dated May 4, 2011 even though approval had been granted by the NPTAB on December 29, 2010. “Given the date of the agreement for the supplies, the accounting methodology used to prepare cheques in the name of the supplier on 31 December 2010 was irregular,” the report said.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/news/guyana/03/25/manickchand-says-using-auditor-general%E2%80%99s-report-as-management-tool/

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, is confident that the US$10M World Bank University of Guyana (UG) Science and Technology Support Project is closer to becoming a reality.
During an interview with this publication yesterday, Manickchand indicated the Ministry and University’s readiness to approach the Minister of Finance next week to sign the loan document with the World Bank.
She related that recent steps taken by the Education Ministry, which is the executing body for the project and the University, show that the conditions for the loan would be satisfied shortly.

According to UG’s Vice Chancellor, Dr. Marlene Cox, the project was approved last June by the World Bank. However, Government was given an 18-month duration to satisfy certain conditions.
Dr Cox noted that the efforts to meet the conditions are in progress and emphasized that for the first time Friday last, advertisements were placed to fill three key positions.
They are an Assistant Accountant, Procurement Specialist, and Project Co-ordinator. The closing date for applications is April 12, 2012.
Another criterion to be satisfied is the establishment of a Project Steering Committee.

Dr. Cox said that the Ministry and the University are working together to finalize the Committee’s membership.
She revealed that the body should comprise eight members- seven from various organizations including the local University, an International University, Private Sector, and the Project Co-ordinator.
Dr. Cox emphasized that the Ministry and the University have to sign a subsidiary agreement outlining how both parties would collaborate on the project.
She said a draft is prepared and very soon that too would be finalized.

The Vice Chancellor pointed out that a draft for the operations manual is already prepared.
This project is linked to the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and will be based in four Science faculties: Agriculture and Forestry, Natural Sciences, and the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
The project is expected to be implemented over a five-year period and would see the improvement of laboratory and building infrastructure at four faculties comprising 14 buildings; providing the laboratories with scientific equipment to enable the delivery of practical science education and research; and establishing of a campus wide internet network.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/03/22/university%E2%80%99s-us10m-project-closer-to-reality-manickchand/

“We know in many cases children are doomed to fail because their teachers didn’t do what they were suppose to do,” said Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam, as he engaged an intense deliberation with teachers of South Georgetown recently.

He was at the time addressing the Non-Repetition and Automatic Promotion Programme, which was introduced some years ago by the education sector and has since been “hijacked and is now being called ‘the No Child Left Behind Policy’.

According to the Chief Education Officer, the programme was designed as part of the Ministry’s intent to devise polices that look at the entire system and what is best for children within it. However, he admitted that there have since been some flaws detected with the programme, which was designed to ensure that students were not forced to repeat a class even if they did not pass all of the prescribed subjects.

Some teachers, according to Sam, are not entirely innocent in the process, as reports from parents have suggested that they (teachers) have not been fully playing their roles to enable students to pass.
“We have had parents coming in and telling us that my child say the teacher was there for six weeks out of the term but come and show up with an exam after 10 weeks and ‘I fail because they ain’t teach me’.”
Teachers have however been lashing out at the Ministry of Education for introducing the Automatic Promotion initiative, claiming that the programme facilitates students’ unwillingness to work but yet they have their eyes set on being promoted to another Grade. In fact, according to Sir Kerwin Mars of the North Georgetown Secondary School, some students are so dependent on the “No child left behind programme that they say you (teacher) can’t beat them, you can’t fail them and they will go over to the next class anyway.”

But according to Sam, the Ministry did not take into consideration those students who were unwilling to genuinely learn even as he speculated that “I think we have all recognised that in introducing this policy initiative, we could have done a better job of ensuring that more of our teachers understood the reason why we go down this path…”
This move, he said, was intended to arrest the problem whereby at least 70 per cent of those students who were forced to repeat in Grade Seven, were not in the school system by Grade 10.  Additionally, if a child who had repeated twice, the percentage drop-out rate skyrocketed to about 90.  “They were absent from school by Grade 10 and when we evaluated why that might be so, what we saw happening was that we were just dropping those children back into the same Grade to do it over and we never bothered to find out why they were failing. We had never bothered to put any system in place to correct the deficiencies that they had.”

Students who failed repeatedly, according to Sam, were often challenged by the effects of a psychological burden, which often transcends into them becoming disruptive during classes. Most of the failing students over the years have been males, Sam said.  “What was happening before this programme could not have been working because, if repetition was a deterrent to failure, so many of our children would not be failing…If they were genuinely afraid to fail, fewer children would have been failing each year.”

With the introduction of the Automatic Promotion Policy, Sam said, teachers were required to consult with parents by the second term of a school year when they realised that students are heading down a path of failure. In addition, it advocates for the introduction of a remediation programme, which students are mandated to attend to address their respective areas of failure. The latter move, according to Sam, should have been accompanied by a roster, whereby teachers are able to keep track of those students who attended remediation sessions.  “We asked teachers to let us know who those children were, who did the remediation and those who didn’t, so we would know who were in danger, so that by June when we re-evaluate the programme, we would see who came to remediation, and maybe the remedy would not be intended for everybody; not across the board.”

Prior to the automatic promotion initiative, Sam pointed out that some students, despite passing a number of subject areas and failing a few, were forced to repeat an entire Grade, even the subjects they had passed. “We required that children remained in that Grade for another year.” But according to the Education CEO, “that is antithetical to everything we know in education. They are not given the benefit of the work they did well in,” Sam added.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/03/16/education-sector%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98automatic-promotion%E2%80%99-programme-justified/

To say that we need to educate our ‘people’ to progress in this 21st century has now become quite clichéd. It is not that we have not explored the exhortation: we have referred earlier this week to the efforts of the Ministry of Education to better deliver the goals of improved literacy and numeracy to our students. The government has also emphasised IT4D – Information Technology for Development and has introduced laptops and Educational TV. Witness the efforts to produce better results at CSEC Maths.

But we have created a vicious cycle. Many students see education as irrelevant and drop out of schools or set low personal goals. Students’ poor performances in turn reinforce educators’ narrow focus on the fundamentals of core subjects – see above – making school feel even more irrelevant to students. Breaking this cycle is critical to our ability to “educate our way to a better economy.”

And this is the goal of our educational system, isn’t it?  But what does a “better economy” actually look like? The US, where so many of us want to emigrate, is ironically asking this same question. Much of what follows in this and the following Editorial is taken from one American proposal. A better economy must be more closely attuned to the demands and rhythms of twenty-first century markets. Today’s markets rapidly follow innovations, while staid institutions and static business models quickly become obsolete. Technology disrupts one thing after another.
To succeed in this new, dynamic environment, a workforce must be comprised of individuals who have both the academic foundation and the creative mindset necessary to spark innovations. These employees must be able to recognize opportunities amid obstacles, set and achieve goals, and refine the skills necessary to solve real-world problems. In a word, we must create entrepreneurs.

Our schools are still captive to an industrial-era approach to education, moving students through an assembly line of arbitrary grade levels without pausing to consider what skills the market demands of the young Guyanese they produce. Yes, Guyana has undertaken a wide array of education reforms, but they are largely focused on the question of how schools should be structured and managed, giving teachers incentives or fine tuning exams and assessments. And we keep on producing non-functional graduates or dropouts.
Most of our dropouts would have stayed in school if they felt it was applicable to real life. Many of them would love to start their own business. One can only imagine what would happen if we start entrepreneurship education programs early enough in schools so students see the entrepreneurial path as viable. Structural reforms will not make school relevant or rekindle the entrepreneurial spirit. How and what we teach must be better aligned with how students learn and what is necessary for their future success.

Entrepreneurship education can set in motion a virtuous cycle that surmounts these twin challenges and moves us closer to the entrepreneurial economy we envision. Entrepreneurship education reframes core academic lessons in a way that demonstrates their relevance to future earning potential and happiness. Pricing a product or service that will earn students some spending money engages them in learning Maths in a way that is highly relevant to their lives—especially for those from poorer socio-economic backgrounds.

Building a business plan for an original idea asks students to demonstrate skills that are rarely emphasized in our education system. Creative thinking, market research, opportunity recognition, strategic planning, goal setting, and all types of communication are key to building a business plan and presenting it to potential investors.
Studies have found that students’ educational expectations were one of the strongest predictors of academic achievement and that adolescents’ aspirations predict their educational attainment. Simply put, students stay in school and are more successful if they believe that what they are being taught is relevant to their lives and can bring success. Entrepreneurship education succeeds in bridging the challenges we face by showing students how core subjects relate to a brighter future, while at the same time instilling the skills vital for the workforce of today.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/03/16/teaching-entrepreneurship/

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/business/03/09/pirated-texts-being-distributed-in-schools-teacher-says/

THE seventh Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Education was hosted in Suriname recently, through the Organisation of American States (OAS), to devise ways in which to transform the role of teachers to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. 

The objective was to analyse the current status of the teaching profession in the various regions and propose policies and strategies that strengthen the functions of professional educators.
The two-day gathering saw government representatives, including Guyana’s Education Minister Priya Manickchand, involved in nine plenary sessions, seeking to determine what kind of teaching today’s student requires and the part governments can play in ensuring quality learning for all.

Twenty-two delegations from member states, among them nine ministers, started discussions on March 1, with the adoption of the ‘Declaration of Paramaribo: Transforming the role of teachers to meet the challenges of the XXI Century.’
Ms. Manickchand, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, said the initiative was one of the best ways forward and the education sector will be successful with this international collaboration.
She said she is pleased with the outcome and that Guyana stands to benefit significantly from the recent long term intervention which seeks to modernise the education system worldwide.
Minister Manickchand said Guyana has agreed to be a part of this new dialogue and will work towards improving the sector locally, as well.

She said she and other government officials from the various countries, represented at the March 1 and 2 talks in Paramaribo, agreed that ensuring quality education is one of the pillars of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

FIRST SESSION
The first session focused on ‘State of the Art of Teacher Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean’, as proposed by a university in Chile and supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Regional Education Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The delegations, comprising ministers and other education officials, were in agreement that the sharing of experiences is key to addressing the many challenges that teaching currently faces.
Coming out of these discussions, a report is to be submitted to UNESCO in May, targeting the researches that were carried out in some of the countries, with the goal of analysing, among other things, the situation of teachers in the hemisphere, their education, professional development, work conditions and professional career.
A release from the OAS quoted Surinamese Vice-President Robert Ameerali as stating that education is inseparable from the development of human capital.
He said the education system is a measurement of a country’s development and governments must be fully committed to it.

“When students fail, the teacher has failed. When the teacher fails, the system has failed; when the system fails, we, as politicians, have failed,” Ameerali said.

Source: https://guyanachronicle.com/2012/03/06/meeting-in-suriname

Having pumped just about $24 million, apart from teachers’ salaries, into the education sector on an annual basis, the government, through the Priya Manickchand-headed Ministry of Education, is determined to reap value for money at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination.  A review of current capital type investment has suggested that “we are not seeing the corresponding rise in grades in the two particular subject areas of Maths and English,” according to the Minister. .  “This is one of the biggest Ministries in terms of the resources that are plugged into the Ministry but the result has not been proportionate to the investments made…the problem with that is very simple, if our children can’t matriculate with Maths and English then it means they are going to be a lot of doors that are closed to them; in the job area and the further education area and we need to make sure that that changes.”

It was against this background that she saw it necessary to introduce an ambitious programme during the latter part of last year, aiming for drastic improvements come results time.
Manickchand has pointed out that while in the area of English there have been indications of acceptable results, the subject area of Maths, over the past 10 years, reflects a mere 10 per cent increase in the pass rate from about 20 per cent to currently 30 per cent.
“This is where we are at right now and this remains unacceptable in any language. The fact remains that we are seeing some countries having 31 and 38 per cent, but all under 40 per cent, and this is no comfort to me because at the end of the day, what it means is that we have 70 per cent of our children not having some of the doors we have here opened to them.”  The Minister as a result questioned “what is the point of developing Guyana or making our country move from a low income, heavily in-debt, poor country, to a middle income developing country if the new opportunities arising in this country are going to be out of the reach of our next generation?”

According to the Minister, the rationale behind striving to improve the rate of performance in the subject areas is geared at ensuring that “our children can go on to universities, whether local or foreign, and be able to access certain jobs. If they don’t have Maths and English, then in a sense we are failing them and certainly we are failing our dear country…” The Minister alluded to the National Pledge, pointing to the fact that the whole theme of the pledge is that we will do what is good for Guyana. “That is not to say that we think teachers have not been doing what is good, but somehow or the other the system has not been able to get those grades up and this for me is not only a matter of concern but almost a challenge or a red flag in front of a bull…We have the potential to make changes and we can combine the potential we have to see actual results for Maths and English if we could improve the grades of at least 1,500 of our children.”

In fact, the Minister is optimistic that the subject area could reflect, at the minimum, a 20 percent improvement when the CSEC results are unveiled later this year.
Her assurance has been reflected by an $85.7M Government approved contract for the procurement of items to boost students’ learning.

These included CXC General Maths Book I and II, the Self-Study Guide for CXC, the collection of revision DVDs, the combined pass papers from 2008 to 2011, Model Solutions to difficult answers, Combined Solution for everything in addition to a Geometry set, graph paper and a scientific calculator, which have been distributed to the participating schools.

Each student slated to be a part of a pilot project introduced by the Ministry of Education has been provided with the procured materials and teachers have been provided with individual syllabuses and a collection of the package to allow them to effectively work with each student.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/03/05/2012-csec-results-should-reflect-value-for-money-%E2%80%93-education-minister/

GUYANA is among several countries of the Americas that will be represented at a meeting of the Ministers of Education of the Americas, being coordinated by the Organisation of American States (OAS) and slated to be held tomorrow and Friday in Paramaribo, Suriname. 

A delegation headed by Education Minister, Priya Manickchand is expected to represent Guyana, but it is not known what issues the Guyana team hopes to raise at that meeting because, yesterday, efforts to secure an interview with the delegation failed.

Among the important aspects of the meeting are: the review of works undertaken by the Inter-American Committee on Education (CIE) since 2009; laying the foundations for the CIE Work Plan for the period 2012-2014; and electing new CIE authorities.

The general focus is expected to be on the teachers that today’s students need; on schools as learning communities; and on the role of the government in promoting teachers’ quality through public policy. Additionally, the ministers are expected to analyze the main obstacles to effective teaching, which may be addressed through public policy; and to examine successful experiences through which educational systems have strengthened teaching practice.
The meeting will also be addressing the current status of the teaching profession in the region, and proposing policies and strategies that strengthen the role of professional educators.

In a press release issued by the OAS, it was pointed out that this Seventh Meeting of the Ministers of Education will be inaugurated on Thursday, March 1st by Surinamese head of state, President Desi Bouterse; OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza; and Suriname’s Education and Community Development Minister, Raymond Sapoen.
The adoption of the “Declaration of Paramaribo: Transforming the role of teachers to meet the challenges of the XXI century”, and the final text of what had been agreed upon during the meeting are among the final activities of the two-day session. OAS Assistant Secretary General, Albert Ramdin is also expected to attend on the final day, the release stated.

Source: https://guyanachronicle.com/2012/02/29/minister-manickchand-for-oas-meeting-in-suriname