The sod was turned yesterday at the site of the planned Prospect Secondary School and Education Minister Priya Manickchand said it is expected to deliver quality secondary education to 1,000 students on the East Bank of Demerara.

Speaking at a sod turning ceremony, Manickchand said the new school will serve to eradicate some of the present challenges faced on the East Bank as it relates to providing quality secondary education and she committed the ministry to working to ensure that the leadership of the project is properly handled.

On the latter point, she noted that the school is one of several that were catered for in 2014 under the World Bank-funded Guyana Secondary Education Improvement Project (GSEIP) through which the ministry was working towards achieving universal secondary education here.

Under this project, the secondary schools that are currently under construction at Good Hope on the East Coast of Demerara, Westminster on the West Bank of Demerara, and at Yarrowkabra on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, were catered for in addition to the Prospect school.

Manickchand lamented that none of the schools had been completed in the intervening time, during which her government was voted out and back into office. She said the delay has affected 3,000 plus students who should have been placed in those schools. Manickchand blamed lack of leadership for the projects being mishandled, incomplete, and even terminated, as was done to the Yarrowkabra School. She assured that this will not be the fate of the Prospect Secondary School.

The minister also noted that presently there are eight Secondary Departments within ‘Primary Top’ schools, while approximately 450 students are being taught in auditoriums in three Secondary Schools in the East Bank Demerara district. She said that her ministry wants to do away with these secondary departments and allow students that are being taught in less-than-desirable conditions to be placed in schools that will allow them to receive a high quality of education.

Manickchand added that the government is committed to ensuring that the project will be completed and will benefit the communities on the East Bank. She also said that while there has been no contractor or consultant appointed to the project yet, she hopes that the entities that will bid to be awarded the contract to construct the school are persons that are patriotic and understand the importance of the school to the 1,000 students it will accommodate. “What I hope and pray is that the people who put forward themselves as having the capacity and the desire to build this school are going to be patriots. [They] will try their very best to finish on time because if they don’t we will terminate long before they reach five years and find out that they can’t complete the school,” she said.

She also warned that if the company awarded the contract to build the school does not honour its contractual obligations, that company will be removed to make way for another that can manage the project. “We will keep a tight hold on the school and the moment you miss, we will be on your backs. For all the time that the school stays unbuilt, we have children crowded at an auditorium trying to get an education. For all the time the schools are unbuilt we have students in a secondary department in a primary school.”

Manickchand also assured that she will work to ensure that the school is completed. “I promise you here today that if I find myself being unable to deliver the promise, then I will remove myself from the space because that would be leadership that does not serve you. So today we commit to you here on the East Bank, as we do to all of Guyana, that any civil works we do, we will monitor it very, very closely. And if the people who are monitoring it are unable to monitor it, they will have to make space for other people who are capable of doing that,” she declared.

Online school

Meanwhile, speaking on the delivery of quality education in the country, Manickchand said that there are three requirements which she intends to meet with the help of the people of the country. The first is a government that cares and is invested to ensure that commodities are available and an understanding of the personal lives of the people in the country. Second, the government must ensure that the people are catered to and trained effectively so they can teach and support the children. “We still have a lot of untrained teachers in the classroom and so very soon, I have great pleasure in saying, very soon, we’re going to be launching off at CPCE (Cyril Potter College of Education) a full online school. We don’t mean teaching on the internet, we mean a full online school, with books and tutoring.” And finally, a family environment that supports learning. Regardless of the parents being separated or other matters, children need to know that their parents support them, and according to the minister, that support builds confidence in students. She added children need to feel prioritised and explained that parents have to ensure their children are prepared for school, ensure they arrive at school, ensure they are given the space to revise and do homework, and allowed access educational programmes.

Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Education Alfred King, in his remarks, said that while Guyana is moving to provide the educational space and access to quality education, there must be efforts to provide the experiences that will speak to quality. He said that this project will complement similar projects at Good Hope and Westminster. He explained that the school will not only cater for the traditional classroom space, but also offer facilities catering for the Allied Arts where there will be a studio for the performing arts, a science laboratory, a state of the art library and an Information Communication Technology (ICT) laboratory.

Chief Education Officer, Dr Marcel Hutson said the project is evidence of the high premium placed on education by the MoE. He mentioned that the MoE had done the research and was able to decide on having the school constructed in the Prospect community. Dr Hutson also noted that such a project is founded on the pillars of the Sustainable Development Goal Four which are: Access, Quality, Equity and Lifelong Learning.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2021/02/06/news/guyana/sod-turned-for-new-prospect-secondary-school/

All schools, except for those levels that have already been reopened, will remain closed until the month of September, according to Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.

“We have taken a decision based on the advice of the Ministry of Health to remain closed for the rest of the school year (or) academic year, which ends around the end of June (or) the first week of July,” Minister Manickchand said while providing an update on her Facebook page.

Schools have been closed since March last year, due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2020 however, Grades 10, 11 and 12 were reopened to allow students to prepare for their upcoming Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examinations slated to be written in 2021.

On Friday, Minister Manickchand highlighted that with the advent of widespread vaccinations facilitated by the government, the ministry expects that all schools will be reopened by September 2021.

CXC CHANGES

Meanwhile, the minister also noted that the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA)- slated to be written on August 4 and 5- could be impacted by a possible shift in the date of the CXC’s examinations.

The CXC body is currently re-examining the date it will host its examinations; currently, the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) are slated to be held between June to July.

She explained that the date of the NGSA was chosen so that it falls outside of the CSEC and CAPE period.

As such, on Friday, the minister said, “If CXC changes their date, it would impact significantly on the date of our NGSA.”

However, she underscored, “As it stands now, I encourage NGSA students, teachers and parents to prepare as though the exams are going to happen in August.”

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2021/05/21/schools-to-remain-closed-until-september-cxc-exams-change-could-affect-ngsa/

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, has emphasised that making all schools equal does not mean that the ministry will take away from the existing top schools, noting that a “constructive conversation” must surround the discussion on secondary school placement.

Manickchand said this while answering questions at the announcement of the 2020 Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examinations results on Wednesday at the National Centre for Education and Research Development (NCERD) in Kingston, Georgetown.

“Without apology, we intend to make every secondary school a good, and excellent secondary school (and) people should not hear that to mean that we are taking away from the good secondary schools,” the minister emphasised.

Recently, the minister alluded to a possible elimination of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), which is used to rank children based on their academic proficiency and then place them into secondary schools.

On Wednesday, however, the minister emphasised that the focus of the ministry will be on identifying how all students can benefit from equal resources regardless of whether they attend a community high school or one of the top schools in Georgetown. This, she said, is meant to ensure some “evenhandedness”.

Fortifying her point, the Education Minister said that Queen’s College, her alma mater and the top secondary school in Guyana, can only accommodate the top 120 students each year. And, though students compete for a spot at this school, it should not mean that the student, who ranks in the 121 place, or even in the 600 place with a score of 95 per cent, does not deserve a sound education too.

She also highlighted that in countries like the United States and Canada, students attend their local community high school. Minister Manickchand, however, underscored that “… there is always space for special education students, students who perform well.”

Importantly, she cautioned people against assuming that the ministry was making sweeping changes immediately. In fact, she emphasised that the conversation on students’ placement is one that needs to be “constructive” and it is one that will be ongoing.

“Barbados started talking about this same thing three years ago and they haven’t yet put it in place because these kinds of changes, we don’t get to change the quality of education at a school and the culture around delivery of education at that school overnight” she said, adding, “it’s a process.”

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2021/05/21/making-schools-equal-not-taking-away-from-top-schools-education-minister/

From January, secondary school students in all levels, except Form One (Grade Seven), will make a full return to face-to-face classes, signalling an end of the nearly two-year run of online teaching.

This was announced by the Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Wednesday at the West Demerara Secondary school in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).

With the rollout of the Pfizer vaccines to children aged 12 to 17 years old, the Ministry of Education allowed students in Grades 10, 11 and 12 to return to face-to-face learning from October 2021.

Some schools had, however, offered hybrid learning where children engaged in online classes and only came to school for practical aspects of the curriculum.

In a press release issued in September, the Education Ministry emphasised that students in Grades 7, 8 and 9 would not return for face-to-face classes as yet. And so, online learning continued for these children.

Despite efforts at instituting a hybrid system of learning, Manickchand lamented that coming to school for a few days simply does not work.

“….we are saying that everybody has to come to school because this thing where you are coming to school two days a week and one day a week is not working.

“We can’t finish the curriculum and if we can’t finish it, we are failing you and it means you are going into exam rooms unprepared,” Manickchand said.

She emphasised that unvaccinated children will not be prevented from attending schools and noted that the necessary sanitisation mechanisms will be put in place to help ensure children’s safety from the dreaded coronavirus.

Importantly, she said that parents and students can decide against returning to these face-to-face classes. Those students who remain at home, however, will be allowed to access the online learning material and not live teaching that the ministry created.

“But we can’t tell you that a teacher will be coming to your home to teach you… you will have to take the responsibility of using that material wisely,” the Education Minister stated.

Face-to-face classes will not resume for students in Form One just yet since some of these children are 11 years old and as such, are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines being to the teenagers.

Once the Ministry of Health manages to secure the special Pfizer vaccines required for children aged five to 11, Manickchand said that these Form One students and even children in primary school will make a full return to face-to-face classes.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2021/12/08/no-more-online-school-for-nearly-all-secondary-students-from-january/

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand says it is likely that the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) 2020 results will be announced on Wednesday.

She noted that Guyana has almost completed its lengthy review process with the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) following discrepancies with the exams last year.

“We are presently compiling data that should allow us to make some announcements tomorrow [Wednesday],” the minister told reporters at the sidelines of an event on Tuesday.

Manickchand further explained that the review process for CSEC is 96 per cent complete with approximately 120 outstanding results, while the review for CAPE is at 93 per cent with 33 outstanding results.

According to the minister, if any student, who is yet to receive their results, only wrote 12 subjects, then the ministry will announce the student or students with the most grade ones. However, Manickchand said, “if there is a student with 20 ones waiting for a review of two subjects, we can’t make an announcement.”

The CXC had promised to have all reviews completed by the end of January 2021, but this did not happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The problem is all of this is happening in Barbados and Barbados is currently under a COVID-19 lockdown so CXC had promised that they would finish the review process by January 2021 and that didn’t happen and now that they are in lockdown, it is uncertain when they would finish,” Manickchand stated.

Meanwhile, Manickchand said that Guyanese students are prepared to write this year’s exams; however, CXC announced that students are not required to write the exams this year if they do not feel prepared. This offer is not concrete, but according to Manickchand, CXC stated that the students can write the exams next year using the same School Based Assessment (SBAs) done this year.

“CXC hopes to say to us as the Caribbean that they are going to allow students who don’t feel comfortable writing this year to write next year and use the same SBAs,” Manickchand said.

The problem with this Manickchand explained is that CXC only offers certain subjects in January. Meanwhile, a meeting with CXC and the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) is set for February 28 where all these concerns are going to be addressed and hopefully decisions on how and when the exams can be written will be finalised.

As it relates to Guyanese students, a strong monitoring process is ongoing to ensure compliance with SBAs and preparation for the exams.

“Last year, we had a bit of a disaster in how CXC was managed in terms of SBAs and we had a whole outcry when the SBAs came back,” the Education Minister reminded.

An investigation later found out that a lot of schools did not submit SBAs on time or SBAs with adequate information while some did not even submit any at all.

“We had three schools that did not submit SBAs at all and the kids did it, so we have to be very careful with monitoring schools and every single centre that is writing CXC constantly to make sure the students are finishing their SBAs.”

In the meantime, the ministry is still in negotiations with CXC not to punish these students for something they did not do and if the response from CXC is not favorable, the minister said the schools will be named.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2021/02/09/csec-cape-results-likely-to-be-announced-wednesday/

The Ministry of Education has been able to engage some of the families of the more than 500 children who were absent from this year’s sitting of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) and it has been found that some children dropped out of school to work on farms or elsewhere to support their families.

This was related by the Chief Education Officer (CEO) Dr. Marcel Hutson during an end-of-year press conference on Monday.

In August, the Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said that some 536 pupils were absent from this year’s sitting of the NGSA, which was held on August 4-5.

At several public events afterwards, she said that the Education Ministry would find those children and reintegrate them into the school system.

At the press conference on Monday, Dr. Hutson said that the welfare officers had been able to locate more than 100 of those children. And, importantly, he reported that some of those children dropped out to work.

In other instances, Hutson said that it was found that some of the children had migrated or relocated to other communities in Guyana. The internal relocation, he pointed out, appeared in some of the hinterland communities.

Hutson emphasised that if children are unable to attend schools because of financial difficulties- whether transportation, food, clothing or otherwise- a decision has been taken to support those children.

“… whatever help that could be given to them financially to alleviate the problems they are experiencing would be given to them,” he stressed.

At this year’s sitting of the NGSA, children were given the option to abstain from the assessment. If they did so, they would be placed in a secondary school closest to where they live.

With the children who the ministry has been able to locate, Hutson said that they will be placed in a secondary school accordingly.

“They will never be left hanging,” he pointed out.

The issue of children dropping out of school has been a concern over the past few months.

Minister Manickchand stated previously that much emphasis has been placed on reopening schools because online learning, despite the many interventions from the ministry, has not allowed all children, everywhere to be equally engaged.

With the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, it is expected that children would be able to return to schools.

From January, it is expected that all secondary school students, except those in Form One (Grade Seven), will return to face-to-face classes.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2021/12/21/some-children-dropped-out-of-school-to-work-education-ministry-sending-them-to-secondary-schools/

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Friday commissioned the first smart classroom in Education District Four at President’s College.

The Ministry of Education said the smart classroom will benefit 299 resident students and 577 students who are currently enrolled at the school but are at home.

In a statement, the ministry explained that to allow students to attend virtual classes, the room has a smartboard, cameras with face recognition, microphones and a smart television. Teachers of any subject would be able to use the room to reach out to their students.

Minister Manickchand, who commissioned the classroom in the presence of students and teachers from the school, said that it will make a significant difference not only for President’s College students but also for students from other schools.

On this latter point, she referred to the virtual reinforcement classes being offered to students from 12 hinterland secondary schools as they prepare for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination in 2021. She stated that there are teachers from Georgetown, Linden, and Diamond on Demerara’s East Bank who are delivering virtual lessons to those hinterland students.

According to Manickchand, the development demonstrates the importance and value of technology in the education sector and will contribute to the Ministry of Education’s efforts to close the gap in access to quality education between students in the hinterland and those on the coast.

According to her, the smart classroom at President’s College is the eighth in Guyana and the first to be commissioned at a dorm school.

The Education Minister stated that the intention is to install smart classrooms in 20 of Guyana’s 114 secondary schools. She said that this will allow schools to access teachers from other schools if they don’t have a teacher for a specific subject.

She also stated that it is critical for the Government of Guyana and the Ministry of Education to provide equal access to learning for all students. She stated that President’s College will soon help to tell the story of how, with the right resources, any student can succeed.

She explained that as a result of COVID-19, several students who were not placed at the school were identified to attend President’s College because they were not being engaged. According to the minister, the performance of those students will demonstrate that all students require, is the right environment, support and resources to succeed.

According to the statement, Samantha Success, the school’s principal, stated that the smart classroom is in line with the school’s vision and mission.  

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2021/04/18/news/guyana/smart-classroom-commissioned-at-presidents-college/

Moments after Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Sherod Duncan moved a motion on Thursday to have the National Assembly entertain a Bill that seeks to amend the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, tensions escalated.

In fact, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, said the manner in which the Bill was drafted – increasing the decriminalisation amount drastically from 15 grams to 500 grams – gives the government no other option but to withhold its support and instead support another Bill laid in the House by Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC.

Delivering the opening speech in a lineup of MPs to advance the government’s argument, Manickchand said the opposition proposed amendment to the principal Act was the epitome of “sanctimonious gangsterism”; she pointed out that ‘the Sherod Duncan piloted Bill’ was identical to another Bill drafted by attorneys Mark Waldron and Nigel Hughes.

The only difference is that the previous Bill asked for the removal of jail time for persons found with 200 grams of marijuana while this Bill increases that ceiling to 500 grams.

“It is a lazy attempt at a draft, there is absolutely no effort made to examine and interrogate the issue in trying to resolve it for Guyanese,” the Education Minister added.

Manickchand, in reminding of the previous Bill which was laid in the National Assembly by former government MP, Michael Carrington in 2016, said the APNU+AFC coalition was being duplicitous in its position on marijuana possession and associated jail sentencing.

“That Bill was in National Assembly from the beginning to end of APNU term, including the five months they stole from this country…two years after it was laid in the House, Joseph Harmon said that sentencing people for small amount of marijuana was a matter for the judiciary…Granger had said in 2017 that such reforms were not a current concern of the government, he declared that he would not subscribe to the usage of marijuana,” Manickchand told the House on Thursday.

She reminded that in 2017, Carrington had begged his MP colleagues in the then government to address the Bill even as the then Attorney-General, Basil Williams called for the matter to be put to a referendum.

The Education Minister reminded that the People’s Progressive Party, whether in government or opposition, has always been consistent on the issue in calling for the removal of jail time for persons found with small amounts of the substance.

The government Bill proposes counselling and community service for persons found with between 15 to 30 grams of marijuana, instead of mandatory jail time.

Manickchand said the Bill will be sent to a Special Select Committee of Parliament where the government intends to further consult on the issue.

“The Opposition will be on the Committee, the people who use and are found in possession will be invited to present their views; the lawyers who see their clients incarcerated will come and tell us and the Rastafarian community will also be able to make their presentation,” she added.

Nine speakers are slated to speak on opposition’s motion.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2021/01/28/manickchand-flays-oppositions-ganja-bill-as-lazy-grandstanding/

Though the Ministry of Education is strongly encouraging parents to give consent for their children to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, unvaccinated children will not be prevented from attending physical classes when schools are reopened.

This is according to Minister of Education Priya Manickchand, who was answering questions at a press conference held at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) on Tuesday afternoon.

The minister emphasised that the education ministry is working towards the safe reopening of schools since online learning and the closure of schools have negatively impacted some groups of children, resulting in some learning loss.

And, if schools are kept closed, Manickchand said that the learning loss may be irreversible for some children.  It is for this reason that the decision was made to reopen schools – not universally, but on an individualised basis.  The Education Ministry said that based on the space and circumstances at each school individualised measures will be applied to ensure the safety of all.

Importantly, too, schools will be ready for reopening, and parents along with teachers will be informed of the individualised reopening measures for the respective schools in the coming days.

Vaccination is also a crucial aspect in the reopening of schools to ensure that the children and teachers are kept safe, and it is for this reason that teachers who do not wish to take any of the COVID-19 vaccines will be required to submit the results of a PCR COVID-19 test, showing that they have not been infected with the novel coronavirus.

But, even as the ministry now has enough vaccines to vaccinate thousands of children between the ages of 12 to 18, Manickchand said that the government is not making the vaccination of children a precondition for entering schools.

“We are not prepared to say that at this stage that unvaccinated children will be disallowed from entering schools,” she underscored.

Before the arrival of more than 146,000 Pfizer vaccines on Tuesday, which can be used to vaccinate more than 70,000 children, the ministry has already started to issue parental consent forms so that parents can grant their approval for their children to get vaccinated.

On Tuesday, the minister said that just over 4,000 children had been given permission by their parents to get vaccinated and she said that she expected that many more persons would grant their approval in the coming days.

COVID-19 vaccination is not mandatory and the education ministry stated that parents who choose not to send their child to school on the days they are scheduled to attend will be enjoined with the responsibility of ensuring that the child is continuously engaged at home.

Importantly, though, the ministry said that children at home will be able to access all of the ministry’s materials on the ministry’s website.

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2021/08/24/unvaccinated-children-will-be-allowed-to-attend-physical-classes-manickchand/

“Your value is not lost on us. Your value is not lost on this nation,” were the words of the Honourable Minister of Education Priya Manickchand as she addressed teachers and headteachers on Tuesday during a luncheon held in their honour.

In observance of World Teachers’ Day, the Ministry of Education hosted a luncheon for teachers and headteachers from various levels. Minister Manickchand reminded teachers that their value to the nation will never go unnoticed.

“I believe strongly, the nation knows your commitment and knows how special teachers are,” Minister Manickchand told the gathering of educators.

Minister Manickchand said that if ever the value of teachers was in doubt, the last year and a half proved that they possess a special skill and art in what they do to educate the nation’s children.

“Teaching is a calling, a calling that you have responded to and an art that you have developed over the years,” she remarked.

Further, she said, “This value is not lost on us. I want you to understand that at the level of the Ministry, that we understand your value. We know in the Ministry how valuable you are.”

She said that together, teachers and the Education Ministry have a duty to take the standard of education in Guyana higher and higher every year so that better and better results can be achieved.

The Education Minister said that she is happy that such a day is set aside to honour teachers and said that she hoped teachers across the country use the day to reflect on how important they are to every child.

She said that teachers can make a difference between children living a life of comfort or continue to live in poverty as an adult.

Additionally, she committed that teachers will see improved relations from the Ministry. She said that this will not be achieved with a ‘big stick’ approach but rather one where guidance is given to improve standards and levels of engagement.

Chief Education Officer, Dr. Marcel Hutson told teachers today that they are valued as professionals and also for the difference they make in the lives of children.

During his remarks, Dr. Hutson recalled how teachers made a difference in his life by encouraging him to work towards achieving a better life than he was exposed to as a youth. He said that every child is born gifted and teachers have the responsibility to nurture the gifts in every child so that they can reach their full potential.

During today’s luncheon, Ms. Francesca Vieira was also honoured for giving 50 years of service to the education sector.

Also, teachers Ms. Malkia Payne of The Bishops’ High School and Ms. Candida Williams of Queen’s College were honoured for writing the Portuguese Curriculum which began in April 2013. They trained teachers and prepared material to teach the subject in schools.

According to Minister Manickchand, it is because of the work of these teachers that the Caribbean Examinations Council is now offering Portuguese at CSEC across the Caribbean.

The subject was first written in 2017 with Guyana obtaining an 89% pass rate. She said that this is a representation of what persons are capable of when given the platform to deliver. (Ministry of Education Press Release)

Source: https://newsroom.gy/2021/10/05/your-value-is-not-lost-on-us-education-minister-to-teachers/