Minister of Education Priya Manickchand yesterday told the National Assembly that Guyana stands the risk of losing its children if government accedes to the Opposition’s call for schools to be closed, noting that some 70 children got pregnant during the COVID-19 related closures.

The Minister made the statement while defending her $74.4 billion allocation in the 2022 budget.

“For all the people asking for schools to keep close, right here in Guyana in 2020 11,944 children registered to write CXC, 494 were absent. In 2021 out of 9,823, 553 are absent. You are risking losing these kids forever.

“Here Sir, the highest number the Ministry has recorded, more than 70 children pregnant and Mr Speaker a particular secondary school reported yesterday said that while its Grade 10 has 130 students registered on roll, 5 have registered for CSEC. So when you come over here with your wild, politically motivated calls to close the schools understand that you are harming and hurting the children of this nation,” Manickchand said in her budget debate presentation yesterday.

After circulating a World Bank blog article titled “100 weeks into the pandemic: the importance of keeping schools open and investing in learning recovery programs” and published on January 24, 2022, Manickchand said that Guyana is well ahead of the recommendations of consolidating the curriculum to allow for more concise delivery. She added that Guyana has already been in contact with experts both locally and internationally to ensure that it happens and is being implemented in the school.

The Minister added that more teachers are being trained to implement that consolidated curriculum explaining that some 1,200 have benefitted thus far.

In Guyana, schools were closed from March 2020 with online learning coming on board in September of the same year. With challenges ranging from access to devices, internet and electricity to delivery of the online classes, the Ministry started a phased reopening of school. In January 2022, schools were opened to face-to-face learning for every Grade and since then the Guyana Teachers’ Union and the Opposition have been calling for them to be closed again owing to the rapid increase in COVID-19 numbers.

Manickchand lauded the strides made in recovering the learning loss experienced due to the closure of schools. She boasted that in 2021, it was the first time in Guyana’s history that all Grade Six students had access to the textbooks they required to prepare for the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).

“In 2022, all primary students will have all the textbooks they need because this budget is providing money for us to buy as well for most of the secondary population. Mr Speaker, we wrote our own reading series. I was on the floor of this House begging, on behalf of the nation, that the reader series be completed. We started in 2015, we published readers one, two and three by 2015 (and) 18 months later, and the honourable (former) Minister (of Education Nicolette Henry) and her coalition decided that wasn’t important so they dropped the entire publication, replaced it with nothing and come here now to tell us what we must do for children,” Manickchand argued.

She added that the Ministry has bought the rights to two new textbooks, Science Made Easy and Social Studies Made Easy, from local author Jonathan Benn and had them circulated to all public schools. Benn’s books were only available to private schools previously. She further stated that budget 2022 speaks to the procurement of 11,000 electronic devices (flash drives and tablets) to be distributed to vulnerable learners and that it was disappointing when two opposition members of parliament, from the hinterland, argued against that allocation.

The argument against the procurement of the devices was premised on the lack of access to electricity, particularly in the hinterland. On that note, Manickchand informed the House that by the end of 2022 all nursery and primary schools will have access to electricity so that they can utilize the Guyana Learning Channel. The programme would also see those schools having access to cable to be able to view the Learning Channel.

“Mr Speaker, we are investing in learning recovery by expanding the Learning Channel…the government of Guyana, the PPP/C government of Guyana is preparing to give the entire school population lessons through the Learning Channel, through the radio. This project is preparing us for that.

“So when you come here and say how this budget is going to help with learning loss. There is no line item named learning loss, it’s the policies and programmes we have put in place that will help recovery that will fund the recovery of the children in this country,” she added.

The Education Minister further stated that the government’s expansion of the school feeding programme is also another means of recovering learning loss. This year the programme received a $2 billion allocation. Additionally, she said that the government is also improving and expanding the buses, boats and bicycle programme that was started under former President David Granger.

Defending the government’s decision to provide parents with  cash as opposed to vouchers as part of the ‘Because We Care’ programme, Manickchand argued that there was countrywide consultation prior to its implementation and the suggestions of the parents were listened to. She added that the government is now increasing its  Cyril Potter College of Education intake so that by 2025 the goal of 100% trained or in- training teachers can be realized.

Manickchand also used her time on the floor to thank the teachers who have braved the pandemic to continue teaching the nation’s children.

‘Proud of my record’

Making  her final parliamentary contribution, former Education Minister Nicolette Henry accused the government of having no programme to address learning losses brought on by the pandemic. She said that the disruption to the education system caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has left serious learning gaps that need to be bridged.

“Unprecedented times Mr Speaker call for unprecedented solutions. The routine of the past as captured in the 2022 budget is unlikely to be adequate. I have to say that a structured, thoughtful approach to covering missed content and providing interventions and remediation will help our students catch up and I believe carefully managing resources will also help fuel that effort,” she said.

She contended that the measures in the budget are merely routine and cannot provide the transformational shifts required for the sector to rebound. She said that the history of the education sector suggests that the identified key academic areas can be revived if the resources are directed on the correct path.

“History suggests that mere time and money will not remove or reduce the threats such as inherent inefficiency and ineffectiveness. There are also diverse distractions that may lead to dispersion of positive energy and the other challenges that have stymied progress and all which are more likely to be effectively addressed through a significant behavioural change in diverse groups,” she added.

Henry said that much more emphasis should be placed on those left further behind so as to ensure equitable distribution of education.

The former Minister said she is proud of her record as leader of the education sector.

“The coalition is proud of its record in the education sector and I stand here today to defend that. School attendance and schools’ performance improved as a result of the initiatives such as the public education transportation system which was aimed at combatting high truancy and dropout rates by providing boats, buses, bicycle and also the public education nutrition service,” Henry said.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/02/03/news/guyana/reopening-of-schools-crucial-for-keeping-children-in-system-manickchand/

Education Minister Priya Manickchand visited Best Village, West Demerara early this morning as part of a campaign to find children who have been missing from primary schools.

The Ministry of Education has launched ‘Operation Recovery’ within the 11 Education Districts to find those primary school students who have been continuously absent since school re-started and those who have missed the recent National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) mock examination. (Priya Manickchand’s Facebook page)

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/02/25/photos/operation-recovery/

The education sector expects a massive influx of trained teachers soon and Minister of Education Priya Manickchand says that improvements in under-resourced hinterland regions can be expected.

Manickchand, during an online forum on Monday night, said that “a very small number” of teachers in the hinterland regions are trained. She also acknowledged that these regions are among those with the least resources.

These resource constraints have hampered efforts at improving the quality of education offered to learners there.

“Our results at the end of [National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) or the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examinations] show that our most vulnerable educational districts are Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine,” Manickchand lamented on Monday.

This situation, however, is expected to change as a larger number of trained teachers are expected in the coming years.

This year, some 4,600 individuals – the largest-ever number of applicants – have applied to the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), Guyana’s teachers’ training college.

This is part of an ambitious goal of ensuring that teachers across the country are fully trained, or are in the process of becoming fully trained by 2024. The main expected outcome of the thrust of training teachers is that better results from children may be garnered, including more individualised teaching.

“You’re going to see better results because of that CPCE expansion,” Manickchand assured the public.

She added, “That’s always been something Guyana has been unable to do.”

The CPCE has shifted to an online mode of delivery and as such, the institution is now able to train more applicants than it could have before. Traditionally, with face-to-face learning, the college was only able to admit a maximum of 535 applicants.

Additionally, the expansion of school feeding programmes, the provision of cash grants and the infusion of more technology into schools are among other initiatives being employed to help improve education in hinterland areas.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/06/15/with-more-trained-teachers-improvements-expected-in-under-resourced-hinterland-regions/

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand says that the St George’s High School which was destroyed by fire in July this year is to be rebuilt at the same location.

Manickchand said that the ministry had preferred to find a larger plot of land but acknowledged that it is difficult to find such in Georgetown.

“We are looking at the same location, while we had preferred to find a really nice place that has large areas to play and do other things, finding land in Georgetown is really hard, it’s almost impossible to find large spaces of land. What we realise is that we really need schools where children can access because of where they live without too much expense”, she said.

 She added that the owners of the land, the Anglican Diocese, have been clear that they have no objection if the ministry plans to rebuild the school but however made it clear that the land is not for sale.

“The church said no, we were in talks with the church to buy but they have been very clear that if we are building back the school it is fine, permission is there for that”, she added

The St George’s High School was ravaged by an electrical fire on July 20th. At the time of the fire, six students and four teachers were in the building but they managed to escape. The building, located along Company Path on the north-eastern side of the historic St George’s Cathedral, between North Road and Church Street, had accommodated hundreds of students.

Some of the students were placed at schools in proximity to their homes.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/11/16/news/guyana/fire-ravaged-st-georges-high-school-to-be-rebuilt-at-same-location-manickchand/

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Friday said children with disabilities must be incorporated into the regular classrooms and be given opportunities as an adult in the workforce.

Manickchand was speaking during a walk to mark Autism Awareness Month.

April is recognised annually as Autism Awareness Month but Minister Manickchand believes it is time to stop raising awareness and treat persons with this developmental disability equally.

“My real desire is to live in a world where we no longer have to raise awareness about how equal autistic persons, particularly children are, so that has to be our aim, that has to be our pledge,” Minister Manickchand said.

Manickchand explained that while autism disallows communication, it does not disallow learning. She revealed that more special needs school will be built but not every child with a disability should be placed in such a school.

“It is best to include children in the regular classroom and that is how everybody benefits best, the child with a disability and the child without a perceived or actual disability,” the minister said while revealing that very soon education in the classroom for children with disabilities will be rolled out.

Meanwhile, she also called on business men and women to consciously leave space for the hiring of people with autism and those with a disability.

Manickchand said that companies can rework their terms of reference “to accommodate the talent and skills of people with disabilities without losing the effectiveness of what service they have to offer.”

She also noted that the government must also put systems in place at various in to cater for persons with disabilities.

Autism affects communication and behaviour; early signs of autism might include a lack of interest in other people and a lack of eye contact.

This year, the Special Needs Education Unit of the National Centre for Education and Resource Development in partnership with the Guyana Power and Light launched a month of activities with a walk and rally.

There, the News Room met Marcia – the mother of 16-year-old Jared Smith -who is a student of the Kingston Secondary School. Jared has autism and has been performing well.

“First we have to accept, we have to love our child for who they are and try not to live in denial, that is the big thing what is my neighbour going to say about my child,” Smith said.

Smith is also the owner and founder of Gifted Hands Centre for children with special needs. She said the centre was inspired by her son.

“It all comes back to parents, the community, to the home, the environment in which the child lives, to help that child develop,” Smith stated.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Power and Light Bharrat Dindyal hopes that the event will continue annually.

“We are hoping that the event that we have today would actually continue to be remembered, continue to be pursued in the years to come, the light that was lit today would continue to shine for the rest of the year,” Dindyal said.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/04/01/education-minister-wants-children-with-autism-disabilities-in-regular-classrooms/

nsidering the need for better access and accommodation for teachers to train in Region Three, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Friday commissioned a new building of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara.

The new facility is now housed at the Ministry of Education’s Divisional Centre and will cater to the needs of some 300 teachers. Prior to this centre, the programme was facilitated at Vreed-en-Hoop Primary School.

This new facility is also a response to the Ministry’s call for all teachers to be enrolled at the college and become 100 per cent trained.

Giving the feature address at the ceremony, Manickchand said teachers are important and valuable assets to any nation; therefore the training they receive must be of the best possible.

“For me, teaching is the noblest profession you can find. And it’s the most important profession. It sounds cliché but it is the profession where you could either make people or break people. You could either change the trajectory of families and their acquisitions of wealth or you could keep them in poverty,” she said.

Manickchand also encouraged the teachers who will benefit from the facility to make great use of the opportunities available. The Minister also told the teachers that they must want to be in the classroom and teach the children of the nation when they register for these programmes otherwise they are doing a disservice to themselves and the classrooms they enter.

She said the government understands the need to have fully functioning facilities for teachers to learn in order to provide the best services in the classrooms. “We’re giving you a place to come and be the best you can to try learning and making yourself develop. We’re trying to make sure you get the best quality education.”

In addition, Manickchand said there will be greater emphasis on the quality of learning offered at CPCE. She said the College will undergo massive changes to hold teachers and lecturers accountable. This is a change that may or may not be welcomed with open arms but it is a move that the Ministry has to proceed with in order to raise the quality of service offered at CPCE, the Minister explained.

The Regional Chairman, Sheik Ayube, was also in attendance and he advised that the teachers challenge themselves to improve the lives of each student they teach.

Principal of the college, Noella Joseph said the ministry’s efforts to reach all teachers has been greatly achieved although the COVID-19 pandemic caused setbacks.

The College has expanded massively with the hybrid format taken during the pandemic. The decision to take programmes online increased the number of enrollments seen at the college.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/11/18/300-teachers-to-benefit-from-cpce-region-three-branch/

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Friday commissioned an Information Communications Technology (ICT) laboratory at the Redeemer Primary School in Georgetown.

Minister Manickchand, in brief remarks, stated that the primary school is the first to be fully connected with 100 megabits of bandwidth and fibre optic cable. The Primary School is also the first to have internet access in every classroom.

As such, the Redeemer Primary School will be used to model the flipped learning approach. This means students will be engaged using both traditional methods and ICT devices.

“The entire school is ready to go online. Every single classroom is now connected with the fibre optic cable, which means this is the school we will be modelling the blended approach from where students can be in the classroom using both the blackboard and the traditional means of education, as well as using their tablets and devices for work in each classroom.”

The ICT lab is equipped with 18 computer systems that will be utilised by the students.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/01/29/ict-lab-commissioned-at-redeemer-primary-school/

Children who reside in the community of Swan on the Linden/ Soesdyke Highway, East Bank Demerara (EBD), will no longer need to travel along dangerous tracks to attend classes now that the community has a new primary school.

The school was commissioned by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand and Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Nigel Dharamlall on Tuesday.

Swan, an Amerindian community, did not have a primary school for the children of villagers to attend before now. Instead, the children had to journey along tracks and shortcuts to get to the neighbouring schools at Yarrowkabra and Kuru Kuru.

The Local Government and Regional Development Minister said residents asked President Dr. Irfaan Ali to build a school in the community to their minds because of the dangers posed by the young children travelling out of the village.

Soon after, construction of the school started. It was subsequently opened on September 5, 2022 and has six teachers, four of which are trained while two of them are in training. It can accommodate 109 pupils.

Minister Manickchand, in brief remarks, said her ministry and by extension the government, fulfilled a long-awaited promise.

“You needed a school for the longest while, you’re getting a school now.

“You needed a nursery school for the longest while, you will get one soon,” she told the residents who gathered at the commissioning ceremony.

The new facility was among several schools in Region Four that benefitted from resource procurement undergone by the Ministry, such as books and furniture.

Manickchand reminded all that the Ministry is aiming to have access to equal and equitable education for all children of Guyana.

“Our commitment to you is that as a government, we will not only put the money into infrastructure, but we also have to make sure we’re monitoring to get results from your children.

“If you get Yarrowkabra Secondary you must be able to go there and get Grade Ones, Twos and Threes. That is our aim and our commitment to you,” Manickchand said.

Further, she said parents must also take interests into their children’s education and help them with their homework even if they don’t know the work, they must ensure the work is done, she said.

She asked that parents ensure that these children are given attention and have access to the necessary things to excel in school.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/11/22/no-more-dangerous-travelling-for-children-of-swan-with-new-primary-school/

The reviewed report of the new hair policy for children in schools has been taken to Cabinet for approval, ahead of the commencement of the new school term on Tuesday.

During a telephone interview with the News Room on Thursday, Education Minister Priya Manickchand explained a consultant has provided a report consisting of changes that should be implemented after considering several conditions as it relates to hair and school.

But that report will be taken to the cabinet before being implemented at schools in the new school term.

“We are going to take the policy to receive the benefit of Cabinet’s input,” Manickchand said.

She explained that the policy report will be discussed before the schools will be notified of it.

Previously, the minister said there will be a change to the rules and regulations that cover hair styles that are acceptable in classrooms. Several rounds of consultations with parents, teachers and other stakeholders were had before this decision could be taken.

The minister said she doesn’t believe that children should be sent home for their hairstyles.

“We are sure the changes will be made you had to balance health and safety, neatness with the realities of different hair types and that’s what we will be doing. So we hope to get that out by the new school term,” she added.

Conversations about outdated hairstyle policies in the school system started in March 2022 after the Ministry issued a memo that announced a one-day relaxation of existing hairstyle rules in schools for teachers and students.

It was to observe International Women’s Day.

With a national debate permeated on social media where persons called for the abolition of the rules, the minister immediately started the consultations.

In a panel discussion hosted by the News Room, Tamika Henry-Fraser, the creator of the social movement Curl Fete contended that the policy or rules which require that students’ hair is kept neat and tidy do not consider Afro-Guyanese children.

Manickchand who participated in the panel discussion, had agreed that the hairstyle rules in schools needed to be examined and possibly changed.

The conversation also addressed the idea that the rules are outdated because hairstyles cannot determine whether a child learns in class.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/12/29/new-hair-policy-for-schools-goes-to-cabinet/

While there were improved performances in Science and Social Studies at this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), “slight” decreases were recorded for Mathematics and English.

Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Director of Operations, Dr Nicole Manning made this announcement yesterday morning while presenting the 2022 examination report at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal.

Since 2016, CXC has been contracted by the Government of Guyana to develop, administer, and mark this examination/ assessment annually.

Manning explained that the overall performance for Social Studies increased from 56% in 2021 to 58% this year. “We would have seen that there is a steady increase over the years. I am comparing five years now. And so, this is very impressive in terms of what’s happening for Social Studies,” she said.

But, despite the increase, there has been a climb in the number of candidates scoring zero marks, Manning said. “And so, useful, noteworthy, for Social Studies we would have had a reduction for the candidates scoring full marks and an increase in the number of candidates scoring no marks,” Manning pointed out.

Likewise, there was a significant increase in the performance for Science. “A good movement of almost 6 percent. From 40.12 to 46.45 percent,” Manning said

“In terms of the Sciences, full marks again (an)  increase in the number of candidates scoring full marks for Science and a slight increase for the number of candidates receiving zero marks. But the Math and the Science I would say you did much better than the Social Studies and English,” she added.

However, “slight” reductions were recorded for English and Mathe-matics.  Mathematics dropped from 36% to 34% and there was a “very great” increase in the number of candidates scoring full marks and candidates scoring zero marks. “So it’s an area for review,” Manning said.

English dropped from 65% in 2021 to 64% this year. English recorded the highest overall performance of 64% this year. Social Studies followed with 58%, Science with 46% and Mathematics 34%.  “Remember, please remember that your Math and Science has been improving. So while it’s showing that it’s less than the English and the Social Studies, remember you had marked improvement in both of these areas,” Manning highlighted.

A total of 16, 223 students registered to sit the 2022 examination.

In delivering remarks before announcing this year’s top students, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said getting to this point was “hard” in light of the school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She noted that a number of measures were put in place to ensure students were able to sit the examination. “We did that where they were calls for us to not write the NGSA, for us to postpone the NGSA, for us to postpone CSEC and CAPE, for teachers to stay home, for parents not to send their children to school. We had to block out the noise,” Manickchand said.

A number of new programmes were also rolled out to assist candidates, Manickchand said. “During the pandemic and our worse flood ever, without oil money, we provided to Grade 6 and Grade 5 children all the text books they needed. And for the first time ever, public school students received text books that only private school children and parents who could have ordered on Amazon or jumped on a plane and gone to Trinidad, could have received,” she explained.

“…We spoke to teachers more than we ever spoke to teachers before in the Grade 6 level. In short, there was a lot of work that went in to getting us here,” Manickchand said.

She further related that a lot of students also found the period “extremely” hard for various reasons.

“The children who are writing these exams stopped going to school in Grade 4. This is Grade 6. They didn’t have teaching the way we have all become accustom to teaching since Grade 4. We put them back in school…. Today, we see the benefit of that decision,” Manickchand said.

“Children during this period had great difficulties adjusting, learning and children had tragedies themselves,” she added.

The National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) was written on July 6 and 7, 2022.

Candidates were tested in four subjects namely; Mathematics, English, Science and Social-Studies. The examination in each subject area

consisted of two papers. Paper One consisted of forty multiple choice items while Paper Two consisted of essay type or open-ended questions.

The highest possible standardized scores obtainable were: Mathematics-137, English-125, Social Studies-126 and Science-133.

The highest possible total score obtainable was 523.

The cut-off mark for the top schools are Queen’s College-508, Bishops’ High -504, St. Stanislaus College -501, St. Rose’s High – 498, St. Joseph High – 495 and President’s College 488.

The Ministry of Education in a press release yesterday said President’s College is one of the A schools in Region 4. “Non-residential places are awarded to candidates in Region 4 from Mahaica to Cummings Lodge, who have attained a minimum score of 490 marks. Residential places are offered to candidates from Regions 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 who have attained scores of 488 marks and above,” the release said.

A total of 231 candidates from schools in Regions 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 are eligible for entry into the school.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/09/10/news/guyana/slight-drops-in-performance-at-grade-six-maths-and-english/