The National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) is Guyana’s secondary school placement examination but Education Minister Priya Manickchand said that reforming this high-stakes assessment is being explored.

Manickchand, while addressing an event at St. Winifride’s Secondary School on Monday, said that the NGSA could still be used as an examination to identify “gifted” children and place them in national and regional schools.

Beyond that, potential changes could see children being placed in schools nearest to them. These changes could be in place by 2027.

Later, while engaging reporters at the sidelines of the event, the Education Minister emphasised that the Grade Six Assessment is not being eliminated.

“The exit examinations measure a whole set of other things in addition to placement… We are reforming the way we use the results for placement,” she clarified.

Before any of these changes can be instituted, improvements in the local education sector are expected.

“We cannot [change the NGSA placement system] without access to secondary education that is universal in the country,” Manickchand said.

Universal secondary education means that all children have access to secondary schooling and do so while equipped with the necessary resources for their learning. In Guyana, Manickchand said the government is in an aggressive push to build and expand more secondary schools and dorms across the country to accommodate students.

Last year, Manickchand highlighted that it was the government’s goal to make all secondary schools equal; that is, each school would possess trained teachers and all requisite resources needed to boost children’s learning.

This goal is still being pursued, Manickchand said on Monday. Now, however, efforts are also underway to construct and expand more schools.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/11/15/changes-to-the-current-ngsa-placement-system-being-explored-manickchand/

Though the Ministry of Education organised a massive countrywide exercise last week to distribute the $30,000 schoolchildren’s cash grant, just over 10,000 of those grants have not been collected.

As such, Education Minister Priya Manickchand said that those unclaimed grants will be distributed later this month- on a single day that will be communicated to parents and guardians shortly.

“If we were to say come tomorrow, it is too close to the date when we did it.

“We have to give them time to come back in and so,” Minister Manickchand said at the sidelines of an event on Wednesday.

She explained that many of the cash grants were not collected for a number of reasons, ranging from parents/guardians being abroad or some hospitalised. In other instances, there were queries about the children registered at particular schools.

Not wanting to disadvantage any child, the minister promised that the cash grants will be made available to all the children who are registered and catered for.

This year each child was scheduled to receive $25,000 under the ‘Because We Care’ initiative. The schoolchildren’s uniform grant was also increased to $5,000, meaning that each child would get a total of $30,000.

And some 200,000 children, both in public and private schools, were targeted over the four-day distribution period.

With most of those grants distributed, Manickchand said that the process was well-managed. She also assured Guyanese that there was a transparent distribution process, given the presence of police officers and auditors at every distribution centre across the country.

She disclosed, however, that there were few instances where people tried to get funds that they were not entitled to. Two envelopes- amounting to $60,000- are also unaccounted for.

Overall though, Manickchand said that she is pleased with the distribution exercise so far.

This ‘Because We Care’ initiative was first instituted by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in 2014. After returning to office in 2020, the PPP/C administration reinstated the grant and promised to incrementally increase it until it gets to $50,000.

Minister Manickchand hinted previously that this sum could possibly increase beyond $50,000.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/08/10/unclaimed-cash-grants-to-be-distributed-later-this-month-manickchand/

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand is confident that Universal Secondary Education will be a reality by 2025.

Over the past few days, Manickchand visited the construction sites of the St. Rose’s High School and the Yarrowkabra Secondary School which will be a new addition to the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, a release from the Ministry of Education said yesterday.

At this stage, the construction of the Yarrowkabra Secondary should have been 60% completed but the project is currently 65% done, the release said.

The Minister expressed her satisfaction that the school is ahead of schedule which means that if work continues at its current pace, it will be finished by May 2023 as per contract.

She said that the school will accommodate 600 students from Yarrowkabra and neighbouring communities along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway which previously didn’t have access to secondary education.

She said that the new school will complement the already existing Yarrowkabra Nursery and Primary Schools in the community. Manickchand said that the completion of the school will ensure that the Ministry does not have to place children who are exiting Primary School into Primary Tops and in fact would be able to close some primary tops that were opened or re-opened between 2015 and 2020.

Further, she said that the Ministry will be able to cater better for children on the East Bank of Demerara with a new secondary school that is going to be built at Prospect. She said that this school will cater for 1000 students.

The release said that Manickchand also recently visited the construction site for the new St. Rose’s High School which she reported is on schedule with 55% of the work finished.

Both projects went through the tendering process and the contract to construct the St. Rose’s High School was awarded to Shandong Dejian International while the contract for the Yarrowkabra Secondary School was awarded to R. Bassoo and Sons.

Kalitech Inc. is the consultancy firm on the St. Rose’s High School project while Vikab Engineering is on the Yarrowkabra Secondary School project.

According to Manickchand, the education system is now retaining more children in school.  She noted that this reality has placed some strain on space within schools.

She said that the rebuilding of the St. Rose’s High School and the North Ruimveldt Secondary School, the construction of the Yarrowkabra Secondary School, the Good Hope Secondary School on the East Coast and the expansion of other schools such as East Ruimveldt Secondary, Queen’s College and the Bishops’ High School will create more space.

“We’re working really hard to achieve universal secondary education within this first term [in office] … So you will see two new schools going up in Region Three, one in Upper Mazaruni (Region Seven), one in Region One, the rebuilding of the North West Secondary School in Region One just to ensure we can bring in universal secondary education just as we were able to achieve universal primary education. So you are going to see Universal Secondary Education before the end of 2025 and we will be very happy to do that”, she said.

The ministry was recently criticised when it was disclosed that children had to be accommodated in tents at several schools.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/10/11/news/guyana/manickchand-confident-universal-secondary-education-will-be-reality-by-2025/

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Wednesday warned that contractors who fail to complete the rehabilitation and construction of schools and other education facilities would have to pay compensation to the government.

Indicating that she has to respond to critics, she said she would be harsher and more vigilant on delivery of projects. “That will see us doing things like liquidated damages because people suffer when we don’t get the schools ready, when they are not done on specs,” she said just before the signing of the GY$566.9 million contract for the reconstruction of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School that was destroyed by fire on June 19, 2021.

The Education Minister indicated that when things go wrong the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) attracts the blame from the public while the contractors do not accept responsibility.

Ms Manickchand said the Ministry of Education does not play and role in picking the contractors but in the end if schools are incomplete and children would not get educated and live in poverty. She cautioned contractors against claiming that the government does not like them when they are penalised.

“It’s very important that we complete this at a high quality in the time that we said we would complete it so that we could make sure that the children of South Georgetown receive what we intended for them to receive,” she said. The reconstruction of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School is scheduled to take 14 months.

In an effort to ensure that new schools are built to serve the needs of children because “it is not an engineering responsibility alone”, she announced that an education officer would be attached to the construction of those buildings. “Sometimes I find in my engineering department doesn’t understand the relationship between delivering education, expecting outcomes for results and changing lives and the building they are constructing,” Ms Manickchand said.

She said that ordinarily 150 students are placed at the school every year following the National Grade Six Assessment but due to the classrooms being destroyed the placement total  was reduced to approximately 50 students. “This is the top school for South Georgetown. So, it means many families in South Georgetown whose children ordinarily could have come here will have to travel further to access the quality of education that was being delivered here,” she was quoted as saying in a Ministry of Education statement.

Headteacher of the School, Ms. Allison Cosbert said that many persons had doubts about the project. However, she said that on many occasions she had to assure persons that the Education Minister promised the it will be rebuilt. “I can stand here today to see that promise is now a reality. So, today’s turning of the sod and contract signing is something that I welcome, and I can speak for my staff,” she said.

The building will measure 432ft (length) x 30ft (width) x 42ft (height). It will have three storeys and will accommodate 450 to 500 students. The school will be fitted with science laboratories, Information Technology Laboratories, new classrooms, teacher accommodation, a sanitary block and a modern external structure.

Source: https://demerarawaves.com/2022/08/25/contractors-will-have-to-pay-compensation-for-delayed-low-quality-schools-manickchand/

A second round for the distribution of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grants for school students was conducted on Thursday, offering accommodation to parents who could not uplift during last month’s countrywide four-day distribution exercise.

Just under 11,000 grants were not uplifted in the last bout.

At Queen’s College, parents from across Georgetown turned out to uplift the cash payout. Two parents, Nalina Smith and Leon Daniels told the News Room that the cash grants will enable them to purchase textbooks and other necessary school clothes.

“It’s going to help me a lot…with this, I am going to buy clothes, boots and some fine stuff. I am grateful for it,” Daniels said.

Education Minister Priya Manickchand visited this site where she told reporters that this second phase was done to ensure that parents who want the cash grant can access it easily.

She notably pointed out that not every parent has expressed a willingness to accept the grant but the distribution will allow those who do, the opportunity to receive.

“When you’re dealing with 200,000 children you will have some people who had real and urgent circumstances on that day where they couldn’t pick up and the government is very keen, we want parents to have this grant,” Manickchand told reporters.

She said persons would not be left without the grant simply because they could not uplift it at the initial stage. However, she explained that this is the final day that parents will be able to uplift the money.

“This is what is happening here, the scheduled second day, second and final day to pick up. I want you to note that auditors are here also, so you’ll see auditors from the auditor general’s office,” she added.

For a parent/guardian to uplift the cash grants, the child had to be registered before July 31 and would be turning out to school in September.

Some of those collecting in this second round were only able to register their children during last month’s distribution.

“Of everybody who is entitled, only just under 11,000 of everybody did not pick up from the last exercise so today if everyone turned up, it would be just under 11,000 but we don’t expect that everybody will turn up,” Manickchand explained.

The Ministry has noted that two envelopes went missing during the first distribution. But this was quickly addressed because of how accountable the entire process is.

However, there have been instances where the ministry took legal action to ensure that persons were being honest in the process.

“We had to call in the police in at least two instances, I believe in one of those two instances a person is actually charged for receiving the grant when he was not entitled nor authorised to,” the education minister stated.

She further said, “We have taken action fully on any kind of hanky panky that happened, [but] we didn’t see a lot of it.”

Further prompted about consequences for persons who already collected the grant but attempt to collect a second time she said, “They will be charged there are many different criminal offences that will be committed there and they would be charged [but] the thing is that can’t happen because if you turn up today for say, St Ambrose, we have the St Ambrose list where the parents who already picked up on the first occasion would have signed and if your child’s name is on that list, you can’t get it today.”  

The ‘Because We Care’ grant is valued at $25,000 this year and the School Uniform and Supplies Grant is valued at $5,000, giving a total of $30,000 for each child in the education system.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/08/18/11000-education-cash-grants-were-not-uplifted-dishonest-persons-will-be-charged-manickchand/

With Guyana’s CSEC and National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) results expected to be released between late August and early September, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has said that the ministry will not be moving away from the practice of publicly naming the top performers.

Over the years, there has been a growing call for the ministry to move away from the practice, with observers citing the inequity of the education sector. Hinterland schools in Guyana are severely disadvantaged as well as some schools on the coastland.

Recently, Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly announced that the twin island republic will be moving away from publicly ranking schools and performers for the Secondary School Entrance (SEA) examinations. The move came after the county recorded poor performance at the examination owing to learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Trinidad Express reported that the Minister said that while the announcement was initially meant to celebrate students’ accomplishments, it has started fostering “unhealthy competitiveness.” As a result, the government decided to move away from the practice.

“The intention behind this practice was to inspire and openly commend and celebrate our nation’s young scholars and to encourage others learning and hearing about these top performances to achieve similar success.”

“However as recent events have shown this public practice has also begin to result in less that desirable and wholly unintended results, in particular this public practice has resulted in students who have performed admirably to the extent of securing places in their secondary school of first choice to have their meritorious performances overshadowed by an unhealthy competitiveness often driven by parents over relative examination scores which are preliminary,” the Trinidadian Education Minister was reported as saying.

Sunday Stabroek reached out to Minister of Education Priya Manickchand to determine whether the ministry has reconsidered its policy of public ranking. However, this publication was told that it is not a topic up for discussion.

“No [we are not going to stop publicly announcing top performers]. You have to understand the context in which the Trinidadian announcement was made. The Minister said that they have recorded overall low scores and that is why they would not be announcing results publicly so that is how that came about. But to answer your question, this is not something that the Ministry [of Education] has ever considered or will be considering. We believe in celebrating the top performers,” the Manickchand said.

She added “You would find in every country in every sphere they glorify top performers and it is something that inspires people as well. As much as people are concerned there are people who have been inspired to do better. I have had a lot of students say that they worked hard just to make the list and that is a good thing. Excellence is something that should be celebrated and we will continue celebrating excellence.”

Manickchand admitted that the practice has “negative spin-offs” but maintained that exceptional performances should be celebrated. She added that the ministry will continue to work to ensure that there is equity in the system but reiterated that “we will not stop celebrating success.”

Observers have been contending that the ministry publicly naming top performers and schools fosters unhealthy competition as well as ‘breaks the spirit’ of those who did not make the cut. The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) is expected to release results of the May-June CSEC examinations late August or early September and the NGSA results are expected on September 15.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/07/31/news/guyana/education-ministry-to-maintain-tradition-of-naming-top-ngsa-cxc-students/

    

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand yesterday commissioned the Abram Zuil Nursery School and the Queenstown Nursery School in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam).

Manickchand during her remarks said that the Government of Guyana is committed to creating a world-class education system as is often spoken about by President Irfaan Ali.

However, she noted that constructing new schools is not the only aspect that is coming. According to a release from the Ministry of Education, she said that a large part of it is ensuring the system has 100% trained teachers in the classrooms.

She reiterated that this is being pursued at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) by providing training online. This route has increased the College’s intake from 535 in previous years to almost 3000.

Manickchand said that the education system will be supported even further with the expansion of the School Feeding Programme in the region.

Assistant Chief Education Officer (Nursery),  Devendre Persaud applauded the Regional Administration and the Department of Education for their work to improve the quality of education in the region. He said that nursery education is paramount in the development of a rounded child.

Headmistress of Queenstown Nursery School Thelsa John was overjoyed at the new nursery school. She said that the previous building was too crowded and was not ideal for the students, especially during the current pandemic. 

Headmistress of Abram Zuil Nursery Jacqueline Cole was also thankful for the brand new building. She said it will provide more space for children attending the Abram Zuil Nursery. 

“I am happy that we finally get a new building the previous one was leaking and it was wooden, I am glad my child will be attending a new school building”, a parent Tasha Williams from Abram Zuil said.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/03/04/news/guyana/manickchand-commissions-two-nursery-schools-in-essequibo/

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has issued a stern warning for children who may want to engage in violent behaviour in schools, noting that the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) – a juvenile correctional facility on the Essequibo Coast in Region Two – is an option for them to continue their education.

Manickchand said violence in schools will not be tolerated and that the ministry does not take it lightly.

The warning comes after a 16-year-old schoolboy was severely beaten by his classmate on March 17. Jaheim Straker, a fourth-form student of the Silvercity Secondary School in Linden, suffered a fractured skull and had to undergo brain surgery.

Straker was discharged from hospital and has been recovering well.

“I want to say to children very, very firmly, that kind of behaviour is not going to be tolerated, we would be prepared to use the law to remove children who are a threat to other children even as we ensure they are being educated and there are facilities for that.

“So, you could go to [New Opportunity Corps] and receive an education as is your constitutional right but not be a threat to other children,” Minister Manickchand told the media on Friday.

Parents were also warned and the Education Minister advised them to “talk to your children about what is expected when they are in school or in their school uniform.”

While the ministry is still deciding on what “appropriate action” to take against the student who put his classmate in the hospital, the investigation into the incident has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for legal advice.

“I hope that body (DPP) acts urgently and swiftly and please note I am not telling them what to do,” Minister Manickchand said.

Manickchand revealed that they are also seeing an increase in violent behaviour in schools.

These “antisocial behaviour” she explained is predicted by studies around the world and could possibly be a consequence of the two years closure of schools and children being unsupervised.

“We are seeing more – I don’t know if I feel comfortable saying more incidences – but we are seeing more visibility of violence in schools or amongst school children, even if not in schools,” Manickchand said.

She further revealed that the policy to deal with violence may also be outdated and as such “we are having a relook at it with an entire mapping out as to what is to be done if any of this kind of behaviour happens.”

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/04/01/boy-girl-school-remains-an-option-for-violent-children-manickchand/

More secondary schools are being built and revamped across the country and with this push, Education Minister Priya Manickchand reaffirmed that by 2025, Guyana will achieve universal secondary education.

This aim means that all students will be able to access secondary education, and it is a promise made by the incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration.

Manickchand, according to a press release from her ministry, made this comment during a recent visit to the forthcoming Yarrowkabra secondary school, near the Soesdyke- Linden highway.

See below the full release from the Ministry of Education:

With the construction of new secondary schools across Guyana, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand said that Universal Secondary Education will be a reality by 2025.

Over the past few days, the education minister visited the construction sites of the St. Rose’s High School which is being rebuilt and the Yarrowkabra Secondary School which will be a new addition to the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. At this stage, the construction of the Yarrowkabra Secondary School should have been 60% completed but the project is currently 65% complete.

The Minister of Education visited the construction site and expressed her satisfaction that the school is ahead of schedule which means that if work continues at its current pace, the school will be finished by May 2023 as per contract.

She said that the school will accommodate 600 students from Yarrowkabra and neighbouring communities along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway which were hitherto unserved by secondary education.

“I am extremely happy that we will be able to add this secondary school to our list of secondary schools in our quest to bring in Universal Secondary Education which we promised we would do,” Minister Manickchand noted.

She said that the new school will complement the already existing Yarrowkabra Nursery and Primary Schools in the community. The Education Minister said that the completion of the school will ensure that the Ministry does not have to place children who are exiting Primary School into Primary Tops and in fact would be able to close some primary tops that were opened or re-opened between 2015 and 2020.

Further, she said that the Ministry will be able to cater better for children on the East Bank of Demerara with a new secondary school that is going to be built at Prospect. She said that this school will cater for 1000 learners.

Recently, the Education Minister also visited the construction site for the new St. Rose’s High School which she reported is on schedule with 55% of the works completed. These two new schools will be complete with modern classrooms, laboratories, industrial arts departments which will cater to TVET subjects, sanitary blocks and other auxiliary buildings.

Both projects went through the tendering process and the contract to construct the St. Rose’s High School was awarded to Shandong Degian International while the contract for the construction of the Yarrowkabra Secondary School was awarded to R.Bassoo and Sons. Each project has a consultancy firm attached which is supervising the quality and pace of ongoing works. Kalitech Inc. is the consultancy firm on the St. Rose’s High School project while Vikab Engineering will be working with the Yarrowkabra Secondary School project.

According to Minister Manickchand, the education system is now retaining more children in school, which is a good thing. However, she noted that this reality has placed some strain on space within schools.

She said that the rebuilding of St. Rose’s High School and the North Ruimveldt Secondary School, the construction of the Yarrowkabra Secondary School, the Good Hope Secondary School on the East Coast and the expansion of other schools such as East Ruimveldt Secondary, Queen’s College and the Bishops’ High School will create more space to accommodate the growing number of learners.

She said that these developments will provide comfortable access to secondary education.

Further, she said, “We’re working really hard to achieve universal secondary education within this first term [in office] is up. So, you will see two new schools going up in Region Three, one in Upper Mazaruni (Region Seven), one in Region One, the rebuilding of the North West Secondary School in Region One just to ensure we can bring in universal secondary education just as we were able to achieve universal primary education. So, you are going to see Universal Secondary Education before the end of 2025 and we will be very happy to do that.”

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2022/10/10/all-students-will-be-able-to-access-secondary-education-by-2025-manickchand-reaffirms/

The Ministry of Education will commence the distribution of the increased “Because We Care” cash grant for schoolchildren from July according to Minister Priya Manickchand.

Additionally, the Ministry will be extending its ongoing school textbook distribution programme to secondary school students.

Manickchand made the announcement yesterday while delivering remarks at the Department of Education – Georgetown awards for students from both Primary and Secondary Schools. The ceremony honoured students who performed outstandingly at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) in 2021.

Manickchand said that the $30,000 cash grant will see parents being relieved of some of the financial burdens of preparing their children for school.

“We are giving from the government level, the most support, parents and students have ever seen in this country. In the last week of July, every single student, I was about to say every single public school student because that is what I am accustomed to saying but it’s no longer that, every single student in this country, nursery, primary and secondary will receive $30,000 as assistance to getting themselves outfitted,” she said.

The Minister added, “Those changes ought to see the significant output and less coming out of the pockets of families and if we are going to do this together, the ministries, the government, parents, teachers and students then surely we should be able to see better results.”

The increase in the grant was catered for in the 2022 budget. Initially, the grant was established in 2014 by the Donald Ramotar administration and saw students receiving $10,000. However, it was discontinued by the David Granger administration.

When President Irfaan Ali took office in August of 2020, the grant was reinstated, increased and extended to private schools as well. In 2021, every student received $19,000.

This year the ‘cash grant was increased from $19,000 to $25,0000 dollars, while the school uniform and supplies grant was increased from $4,000 to $5,000, bringing the total to $30,000.

Additionally, Manickchand said that the government will be extending its textbook distribution programme to cover Grades Seven to 13 students. The students will receive all Mathematics, English and Literature textbooks required, while efforts will be made over the next two years for all secondary school students to have all the textbooks needed.

The textbook distribution programme commenced in March of this year and saw primary school students receiving books to cover each core subject area, Mathematics, English Language, Science and Social Studies.

Parents are required to sign a contract promising to ensure that the books are well-kept and returned at the end of the school year. Failure to return the books will result in children being unable to receive other books in other grades to take home and even unable to benefit from the “Because We Care” cash grant for the new school year.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/06/23/news/guyana/because-we-care-cash-grant-to-be-distributed-from-july/