In less than three months, North Ruimveldt Multi- lateral School will officially become one of the top secondary schools in the country, when the Ministry of Education commissions it as an ‘A’ school.

The announcement was made by Education Minister Priya Manickchand yesterday and she further said that the decision was well-deserved following continued improvements by the school.

“This school began as a B-list school and based on the excellent performance of the school’s students at CSEC [Caribbean Secon-dary Education Certificate] during a period of time – for three consecutive years – the school is now qualified to be an A-list school,” Manickchand explained.

The school’s upgrade is expected within the first quarter of this year.

Guyana is home to five senior secondary schools and a number of junior secondary schools. These schools are usually ranked from A to D and these rankings are based on the schools’ performances at the CSEC examination, the highest being listed A while the lowest are classed D schools.

For students who did not earn a place at one of the five senior secondary schools, placement in an A-list school is a satisfactory alternative. These A-list schools are equipped to produce quality students, both academically and otherwise.

North Ruimveldt Multilater-al’s commissioning is one of several plans being embarked on by the ministry within the first three months of this year.

It will also launch locally-written books to improve literacy, publish the 2014 to 2018 National Education Plan and finalise and publish draft standards for teachers.

Further, the ministry will commence a US$10 million programme aimed at the improvement of secondary-level education in Guyana. According to Manickchand, the objectives of this project are to strengthen the capacity of secondary school Mathematics teachers nationwide and to increase enrolment in general secondary schools in targeted regions.

The programme is expected to be implemented over the next three years, she said. Approximately 800 secondary-level Mathematics teachers nationwide will benefit from in-service training, while about 2,600 students are expected to benefit each year.

The project will also benefit students in 8 schools with technology-assisted learning and Mathematics pilot programme. Additionally, the Ministry of Education will benefit from improved capacity and education management, Manickchand asserted.

“This project is going to help us get closer to our goal…of attaining universal secondary education by this term,” the minister said. “This programme will officially be launched in the first quarter of this year,” Manickchand added.

The ministry will also be placing communication between parents and educators on the front burner with the introduction of a National Report Card day along with a Parents’ Day.

According to Manickchand, the ministry is hoping to increase the information available to stakeholders, particularly the Parent/Teacher Associations and improve the lines of communication and collaboration amongst parents, schools, and the ministry.

Hence, she said, the report card day will be set for the last Thursday or the second to last day at the end of each school term to allow parents from across the country to go into their children’s schools and personally uplift report cards. Parents will also have one-on-one interactions with teachers to help overcome challenges and strengthen performances.

Additionally, Parents’ Day will be set for the fourth Thursday of every month at the nursery level. At the primary level, the date will be set as the second Thursday of each month.

Manickchand emphasised that parents can still visit schools and their visits are not limited to parents’ day. However, she explained, the ministry wanted needed to ensure that there was a designated day for parents to come and voice their concerns.

“The ministry views these approaches as vital to the development of our children and we encourage parents, guardians and teachers to work together to ensure that every child becomes the best that he or she can become,” Manick-chand said. “Together we can move forward; together we can take our children to a higher level.”

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2015/news/guyana/01/17/north-ruimveldt-multilateral-list-status/

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, yesterday lashed out at the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), calling remarks made by its President “less than honest.”

At a press conference yesterday, Manickchand said that this has occurred despite the fact that the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union have for years enjoyed very good relations. She disclosed that collaboration between the two bodies have been instrumental in advancing the welfare of the members of the GTU.
Moreover, Minister Manickchand did not attempt to conceal her annoyance at what she called “burning, sensational GTU presentations”, published in the media in recent days.  “I think that it is extremely unhealthy to be engaging the Ministry through the press and I think that it is a very new and worrying form of engagement…and I would caution them to rethink that strategy,” said the Minister as she asserted that “our doors have been opened to the Union…”
“We are in touch by telephone…up to last week there was a meeting; we have had monthly almost statutory meetings with the Union, so I am very surprised to see some of the issues that the Union’s executives have been raising and for the first time in the media where there is no engagement with us to address some of these issues,” said the Minister.
She speculated that the modus operandi is aimed at “getting some attention or staying relevant or becoming relevant…it should have been addressed with us, we are not preventing you thereafter or even simultaneously in going to the media,” said the Minister.
She, in making reference to disclosures in the media by GTU officials regarding duty free concessions for vehicles and the debunching of salaries, insisted that these were in fact not accurate representations of the truth.

GTU President,
Mark Lyte

Speaking of the duty free concession, GTU President, Mark Lyte, had said that the body has over the years submitted several lists of the names of teachers who qualified for a one-off duty free concession. In fact, he disclosed Wednesday at a press conference that “we have submitted names that would go right back to 2009 for those teachers who did not receive their duty free concessions when they were eligible and as such, we were expecting the Ministry to ensure that those teachers receive their duty free concessions…Lo and Behold 2014 came to an end and these were not granted.”
“We are saying that this in itself is an injustice meted out to our teachers who would have laboured in this profession for over 30 years, only to have to leave the profession without having that duty free concession given to them,” said a despondent Lyte.
Nevertheless, the GTU head said that he was optimistic that during the first quarter of this year, the process will be expedited so that teachers who have thus far been denied their duty free concessions will be so endowed.  “We hope that those responsible will act swiftly,” added Lyte.

While the Minister acknowledged that there were some challenges that should not have even materialised, she categorically disputed the claims of the GTU President that there are eligible teachers who are yet to receive their duty free concessions. She insisted too, that the challenges that were had cannot be deemed merely the fault of the Ministry but the Union itself must also accept some responsibilities. “It is also the executives of the Union fault; they are trying to say that it is the Ministry’s fault but this is highly misleading,” said the Minister as she intimated that there were about a dozen teachers who were eligible in 2009. She noted that while their applications were not dealt with immediately, they were eventually furnished with their duty free concessions.
Head teachers and Deputy Head teachers of Grade A and B schools are eligible for duty free concessions once they would have served for at least three years and have at least five years remaining.
The Minister yesterday pointed out that although the Union was at fault in submitting the applications thereby causing them to be in a position of jeopardy, it was because she did not want the teachers to be penalised that efforts were made by her Ministry to ensure that they were afforded the privilege of receiving their concessions. “As far as we are aware there are no backlogs…I can specifically refute the representations made by the President of the Union assuming they are true. I’d like to believe that they are not because we have addressed these issues before,” asserted the Education Minister.

Like the GTU President’s disclosure on the duty free concession, the Minister also did not find favour with his claims about the debunching issue.
According to Lyte, the GTU is dissatisfied with the debunching agreement which was designed to place teachers in various salary scales based on their years of service. This agreement, according to Lyte, was signed in 2011 but to date no teacher has been able to benefit from it. “One may want to say that the process wasn’t clear,” said Lyte as he pointed out that in September of last year a Task Force completed its work in ensuring that the way was paved for the monies to be paid to teachers. “Again, the year came to an end and nothing was done,” said the GTU President as he disclosed that the Union had even written to the Education Minister asking that a response on the matter be forthcoming within three days. But according to him, “to date we have not received a response from the Ministry of Education. We are saying that this approach is unacceptable and we will not sit by and allow these things to continue to happen to our teachers.”
As such, Lyte shared his desire to see that something be done quickly so that teachers who deserve the additional incentive (through the debunching agreement) be given such.
But according to Minister Manickchand yesterday, “this again came up before and I have been friendly and a good partner; I thought there were mistakes being made even though members of the Union’s executive had gone to the public and laid the blame at the Ministry’s doors in a sensational exercise at the last Congress. We had cleared this up privately at our meetings with them,” Manickchand divulged yesterday.

In presenting her Ministry’s version of the debunching situation, the Education Minister explained that in 2010 a joint Committee was set up to deal with the proposal for debunching. The Committee saw representation from both the Ministry and the GTU sides, the Minister added.
She said that after the Committee met, a memorandum dated May 20, 2010, was sent to all head teachers, who are members of the Union, to submit information in a specified format as agreed upon by the Committee.  But after one year, only about 10 per cent had submitted the requisite information, Manickchand disclosed. “In a memo dated the 24th May, 2011, a reminder was sent to the membership of the Union again in agreement with the Union’s Executive and so on, by mid 2012 we had received about 90 per cent of the forms we had sent out,” said the Minister.

According to her, the salary structure was designed for implementation of the debunching exercise and a costing was done based on a revised salary for 2011. At the start of 2013 a completed proposal was given by the Committee to Lancelot Baptiste, GTU’s Administrative Field Officer, in order to have discussion at the level of the Union.
In February of that same year, Manickchand recounted that Baptiste was advised that the Union was satisfied with the plan which was forwarded to the Ministry sometime late last year. “That is the sequence…the Government sat and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Union, because we want to do what is in the best interest of our teachers as far as our economy would allow. Why would we not then want to do this? I am saying that both sides could have perhaps done things a little bit quicker. So to lay the blame at our door steps is less than honest,” added the Education Minister.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2015/01/17/education-minister-labels-gtu-disclosures-as-less-than-honest/

Although faced with a potential challenge that could have hampered the learning process of nursery-age children, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has reported that there were no major complaints.
The Ministry had introduced a revised entry age for nursery children which kicked into motion at the start of the school year in September last.  Previously a child had to be three years old by March 31 in order to enter Nursery School in September of the same year. However, with the revised undertaking by the Ministry, children were eligible to enter the nursery level in September even if they would have turned three in June.

Minister Manickchand at her most recent press conference at the Kingston Georgetown, National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD), informed that her Ministry has been closely monitoring the revised tactic.
According to the Minister, ahead of introducing the revised age of entry, the Ministry had started holding national consultations in 2013. She however, noted that “I didn’t think that we were prepared in the system to accommodate these children in September 2013, for many reasons…” At the time, Manickchand said that the Ministry was not able to ascertain how many children would have been eligible for acceptance.
She however noted that based on figures from the General Registrar Office, it was evident that there were about 1,000 new births every month.
“We could have estimated that it would be about 3,000 more children added with the three months period that we were allowing for…The problem with that, is that, we didn’t know how the children would be spread out,” said the Minister.
Added to this, she said that “we didn’t know whether we would have most of them in Georgetown; all of them in Georgetown; none in a particular Region; if a particular school would have 500 new children while no other school had any; we had to really plan for it and get our parents to register (their children).”
And so registration for nursery children started in January as opposed to previous years, when it started around April/May to allow the Ministry to make preparations to accommodate the additional children.  The Minister continued that “frankly we haven’t had any major complaints. I haven’t heard of any, but nursery-age children are always, when they get into schools, first they will bawl the school down for maybe the first week, and they bawl a little bit less for the first month and by the end of the first term they settle in.”

Another known issue that children face, the Minister said, is that of limited independence, whereby some of them are unable to use the toilets or are unable to eat by themselves.
“We could have had a major problem on our hands if this was really going to hamper the learning environment for all the children in the classroom,” noted the Minister. But according to her, the Ministry was able to minimise a series of potential problems by inviting about 90 per cent of the entrants’ parents to meetings, ahead of the start of the school year (July/August holiday), that sought to solicit their (parents) support to prepare their children for school.
“We asked them to teach their children and be of help in the home, but that flew under the radar…the press wasn’t interested in that,” said the Minister as she pointed out that “we had parents who knew what would be expected of their children and what they could help with over the holidays.”
The end result, the Minister said, is that the nursery system was able to receive children who were more prepared in September than ever before.
“All of our children are never going to be able to use the toilet and so on before they go to school, you will always have that percentage that the teachers will have to work with,” said Manickchand as she reiterated that “most of our children are prepared and ready for learning.”

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2015/01/07/education-ministry-monitoring-revised-nursery-entry-programme/

In order to continue a course to effectively chart the way forward in terms of ensuring that professional standards for teachers are in place, the Ministry of Education is in the process of compiling a report containing stakeholders’ recommendations.
The recommendations were forthcoming during countrywide consultations regarding a Draft Professional Standards for Teachers during the past year.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, at a year-end media conference, recalled that it was early last year that her Ministry announced that a draft white paper outlining the objectives of a proposal for the Professional Standards was in place.
But in order to define the proposed standards, the Education Ministry spearheaded a series of stakeholder meetings across the country. The intent, Manickchand said, was to define the standards to be adopted for the teaching profession in Guyana.
And according to her, consultations were held in each Region of the country—71 altogether between February and July 2014.
The consultations saw attention being given to the teaching standards detailed in the Draft Standards for Teachers in Guyana. “Generally the stakeholders present at the consultations agreed that there was need for professional standards,” said Manickchand. She added that some stakeholders even “praised the Ministry of Education for the (Draft) Standards since they will make teachers more accountable and (because) the standards were realistic and not making unreasonable demands on teachers.”
The consultations, according to her, were open to members of the public with specific invitations sent to Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), teaching staff and other stakeholders that the Ministry has traditionally identified as stakeholders.

The consultation processes were therefore designed to gain feedback on ways to improve the Standards, and to invite engagement from the stakeholders.
Through the establishment of Professional Teachers Standards, the Ministry strongly believes the teaching profession will be significantly strengthened, further recognized and aptly placed among the other leading professions in Guyana.
Copies of the draft Standards for Teachers were made available to teachers in the printed form for their perusal and comments and in excess of 10,000 were handed out. The Ministry also placed the document on its website www.education.gov.gy to allow for additional comments to be made and to facilitate those who were desirous of contributing to it but were unable to be present, physically, at consultations.
In addition, members of the public were invited to submit their comments on the document via email to [email protected].

The Ministry in a statement had said that Professional Standards for Teachers will set expectations for achieving desired educational outcomes and also amplify the importance of the performance of those who teach, lead and or supervise the education system.
It was underscored that such performance is the collective outcome of pre-service training, on-going professional development and the experience gained through the practice of the profession.
However, the document notes that since the education professional is ultimately responsible for his or her impact on the system, it is therefore expected that the assessment of the standards will be based on practice rather than on examinations.
“These standards are not intended as a tool for punitive action. Rather they reflect professional consensus of what is desirable in the supervision, leadership and delivery of education. They also provide a framework that permits professionals to engage in self-assessment,” added the statement.
The proposed standards are aligned to the Organization of American States (OAS), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and other international standards and therefore offer the professional community specifications against which teachers are able to set goals for personal development and progress in the profession.
Moreover, the standards are multi-dimensional and give cognizance to the key props for learning to take place, namely: (a) a motivated and willing learner; (b) effective teaching and learning and, (c) an enabling environment.
Manickchand, during the early stages of the consultations, had intimated that the response was heartening.
During an interview with this publication, she said that the document was even attracting overseas attention.
“It is very pleasing to me to see persons living abroad giving their input too. I will write to each of them personally to say thanks for being interested and paying attention to our sites and to actively engage with us,” informed the Minister.

The overseas response, she disclosed, allowed the Ministry to access other similarly crafted documents from various countries in order to help guide the way forward.
“It has been extremely good, the input we have been getting so far, because people are telling us what they think is wrong or right,” the Minister said.
And the local response has been no less gratifying, she pointed out, even as she alluded to the overwhelming turnout at the stakeholders’ consultations.
This is especially pleasing, the Minister said, in light of the fact that the meetings were attended by choice. “I am very satisfied…our aim has been to make it known that we have these draft standards and get feedback from everyone in the country about how they feel about them. This is to allow them to see if they want to delete stuff, if they want to add stuff…and that is the aim of the conversation and I am extremely pleased to see the turnouts, because these are not mandatory meetings,” the Minister said.
“People come with their notes written, which means they would have read it (the document) before they came,” added the Minister as she pointed out how involved stakeholders were towards the draft standards.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2015/01/04/report-on-professional-standards-consultations-being-finalised-manickchand/

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has approved a US$1.7M ($340M) grant for Guyana which will be used for early childhood education in the hinterland.

This was disclosed yesterday in a release from the Ministry of Education. It said that at the last meeting of the Board of Directors of the GPE from December 15-17 in Washington, DC, United States the approval was granted.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand sits as a Director on the board,  representing Latin America and the Caribbean (Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua).

The release said that the Ministry of Education will apply the US$1.7 million education grant to improve its Early Childhood Education Programme with particular attention being paid to the hinterland and riverain communities. Manickchand said that she expects the grant to allow for the building upon the many gains already made and expects to see vastly improved learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy at the early levels.

Alice Albright, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education said, according to the press release, “If we want to reach the Education for All goals, we need to ensure that adequate funding is available from both domestic and external sources”.

“While donor funding to education has dropped by 10 percent since 2010, the Global Partnership has consistently increased its education funding, particularly for children living in the poorest and often fragile and conflict-affected countries”, she added.

The six new grants build on prior achievements and will help implement the national education plans of Central African Republic, Guinea, Guyana, Kenya, Lao PDR and Nigeria.

The new financing, the release said, reflects the Global Partnership’s top priorities: increasing access to basic education in fragile countries, improving the quality of education, improving teachers’  effectiveness, generating measurable results and championing girls’ education.

The Global Partnership for Education is made up of nearly 60 developing country governments, as well as donor governments and civil society/non-governmental organizations.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2014/news/guyana/12/20/global-education-fund-grants-340m-guyana/

It was Duviena Badray of the Region Two Anna Regina Satellite Centre who was named the overall top performer when the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) convened its 80th Graduation Ceremony at the National Cultural Centre yesterday.
Badray was able to outperform her colleagues in order to be duly rewarded with the Prime Minister’s Prize as the Best Overall Graduating Student. She also won the Vice Principal’s (Development) Prize for being the Best Overall Graduating Student in the Distance Education Primary Programme and the Chief Education Officer’s Prize for being the Best Overall Graduating Student in the Distance Education Programme in Teaching Practice.

She however was not the only one in the limelight yesterday as there were a number of others who were presented with prizes for their respective performances in specific subject areas.
Awards were also presented under the Guyana Improving Teacher Education Programme (GITEP).  Aside from Badray, who was understandably the most outstanding graduating student of Region Two, the other outstanding students for the respective Regions were: Loiselle Robinson (Region One), Anyanna Peters (Region Three), Muneshwar Baskaran (Region Four), Livia Stacy Gentle (Region Five), Shemane Kendra Caesar (Region Six), Sylvester Tobin (Region Seven), Floyd Rodrigues (Region Nine) and Clair Ramessar (Region 10).
Yesterday’s award ceremony was held under the theme “21st Century Pedagogical Transformers” and as usual the males graduating were significantly outnumbered by their female counterparts.
In addition to its Turkeyen Campus, CPCE has Satellite Centres at Mabaruma, Moruca and Port Kaituma, Anna Regina, Vreed-en-Hoop, Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Rose Hall, Mahdia, Annai, Aishalton and Lethem and at Linden.
The graduates together pursued programmes in three categories: the Associate Degree in Education, the Trained Teachers Certificate and the Teacher Upgrading programmes.

        A section of the graduates.

And according to CPCE Principal, Viola Rowe, as she presented the Principal’s Report, the teacher training institution is poised to contribute a total of 359 graduates to the education system. Of the total graduates 50 are trained to cater to the Early Childhood Education level, 120 are trained to offer Primary level Education, and 189 are trained to deliver Secondary Education.

But training these individuals was certainly not without some challenges as, according to Rowe, recruiting of part-time staff, with the right skills mix to supervise students on their in-school practicum attachment, was in fact a challenge faced. This, she said, resulted in full-time staffers having to facilitate in this regard in order to compensate for the shortfall.
However, Rowe noted that unlike the experience in the previous reporting period where several classes were left unattended, such incidents subsequently were in fact minimal. She attributed this “to effective timetabling and improved departmental management by section heads and coordinators.”
However another challenge that surfaced during the reporting period was that of a difficulty to recruit qualified and experienced staff to facilitate in the areas of Visual Arts, Music and Information and Communication Technology.
“Consequently, we were unable to offer those disciplines as specialization (areas). Nevertheless all students benefited from general course offerings in those areas,” said Rowe as she emphasized that there were successes realized under the GITEP Programme.

But according to her too, the College continued to work diligently to ensure that “we graduate students who are not only intellectually, psychologically and professionally prepared for their role in society, but graduates who understand their moral responsibility for the learners with whom they interact.”
And as was emphasized by Rowe at the previous graduation ceremony, the institution has recognised the importance of ensuring that organisational practices and processes are in congruence with professional teaching standards.
According to her, “it is obvious that our students are expected to work in accordance with set academic standards. However, we are cognisant of the need for us as administrators, managers, lecturers, practicum supervisors, cooperating teachers, support staff and all other categories of College workers to also conform to professional work standards.”
With such a tactic in place, Rowe is confident that that would bring the much needed synergy for improved organisational growth and development.
Delivering a feature address and charge to the graduates yesterday was Former Chief Education Officer, Ed Caesar, who emphasized that “we are celebrating success…” During his remarks, he pointed out that it was Martin Luther King who said “if you can’t fly then run; if you can’t run then walk; if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
And according to Caesar, the theme of the graduation ceremony alone amplifies that CPCE is already on a mission to move forward.
“It intends to improve its practice; the College intends to provide the nation with efficient and effective moulders of our youths. We must congratulate the College,” Caesar stressed, even as he urged the graduates to practice what they were taught and even improve on what they have learnt. He also charged the graduates to establish good relationships with other teachers and refrain from becoming lackadaisical in their profession.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/12/19/cpce-plugs-359-more-graduates-into-education-system/

– hopes to include other benefits in pay package negotiations

Renewed salary renegotiations with Government in the New Year, will see the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) advocating

GTU President,
Mark Lyte

for a 20 per cent pay increase across the board for public school teachers.
This is according to GTU President, Mark Lyte, who anticipates that negotiations with Government through the Ministry of Education will commence in the first quarter of 2015.
He said that the Union is hoping for another multi-year agreement with Government; the existing five-year agreement is slated to expire at the end of next year.
The agreement which was inked between Government and the GTU in 2011, was one designed to cater to a five per cent hike in teachers’ salaries at the beginning of each year for a period of five years.
But according to Lyte, the planned negotiations will not only address an increase in salaries, but also other benefits that the Union believes teachers should be entitled to from 2016.
“Our focus is not only on salary issues but also on non-salary issues as well,” said Lyte who noted that the proposed package for teachers will include duty free concessions, allowances for head teachers and principals.
“We are also looking to include incentives for the lecturers at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), and the technical institutes because they are our members as well, and we intend to bring them on board in terms of the benefits we expect them to have,” said the GTU President.
He said, “We are looking to put a complete package together that will help the Ministry focus on the welfare of our teachers.”  This move is imperative, Lyte said, since the Union is cognisant of the fact that the teaching profession has become very stressful, and that teachers should be properly compensated for their efforts.
Currently, the GTU is preparing a pay package proposal that will be presented at the time of negotiation with Government. But according to Lyte the GTU has no intention of making the decisions for the teachers without their input.
He noted, “We are allowing for the input from all levels of teachers. We are going on the ground through our various branches to hear what teachers would want us to include in their pay package.”
GTU has 39 branches spread across the country and, according to Lyte, the Union is depending on branch representatives to provide feedback on the teachers’ input.
The status of such discussions was on Tuesday deliberated on when the Union held a General Council meeting at its Woolford Avenue, Georgetown, headquarters. And according to Lyte, at that meeting, a decision was made for the representatives of the various branches to provide the relevant information to the Union by January 31, 2015, to submit all teachers’ suggestions.

At a recent press conference Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, noted that unlike other public servants, teachers will from next month be eligible for a pay increase, an undertaking that is premised on a multiple-year agreement forged with Government.
Manickchand, commenting on measures apace to help improve the livelihood of teachers, said, “I am happy to say that teachers, next year, will not have to wait until the end of the year or until further negotiations between their Union and the Government, to decide on what increases they will get.”
She noted that teachers will be entitled to an increase of five per cent of whatever they are earning as at December 31, 2014. “We know right now that this will happen for teachers in the (public) education system,” asserted Manickchand at her press conference.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/12/18/gtu-seeks-20-per-cent-increase-for-teachers/

A parliamentary fracas which led to the proroguing of Parliament and the eventual announcing of early General

Elections by President Donald Ramotar was in fact a factor that prevented the New Education Bill from gaining much needed attention.
This state of affairs was hinted to by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, when she hosted her end of year press conference, on Monday.
According to the Minister, while she is happy to report that the Bill was laid in the National Assembly earlier this year she is concerned that it is yet stalled.  The Bill which was tabled in June is one that is designed to replace an archaic Education Act which was first passed in 1876 and later amended in 1976.
“Unfortunately, that Bill got stuck in the Parliamentary fracas and has been unable to receive the attention of the Members of Parliament and any Special Select Committee that could have been set up,” said the Education Minister.
Once passed, the New Education Act will give keen attention to the rights of children and their responsibilities in the school system, as well as the rights and responsibilities of teachers, said Manickchand, as she spoke of the proposed Act also directing focus to the operations of Parent/Teacher Associations and the Ministry’s Departments.
“It will reconcile the constitutional provision that allows for private schools to be opened and managed; and for people to attend private schools with our historic only public school system. The Bill is extremely important to address modern education needs in Guyana; we look forward to the passage of that Bill.”
The Minister said that the Bill will serve to cater to things that “we did not know would be realities when we passed the last one in 1876.”

The Bill was crafted following consultations with stakeholders across the country, and seeks to reform the legal framework of education in Guyana, and provide an effective system of education related to the needs of the people.
And since Article 149H (1) of the Constitution mandates that every child is entitled to free primary and secondary education in schools owned or funded by the State, the Bill makes provision for such a realisation which is however subjected “to available resources of the State, and the availability of educational facilities to all persons in Guyana.”
Also contained in the Bill are provisions for ensuring free education to all persons, and a component that speaks to quality education at all levels, both in public as well as private schools, and other educational institutions in Guyana.
The Bill is outfitted with a component to cater to the strengthening of the existing school management system, so that it allows for the maximum participation of parents and teachers in the management of schools.
The Bill, which also provides for the disciplining of children in the school environment, is being touted as a mechanism that contains measures that will “ensure for the benefit of children, enhancing their talents, mental and physical, and ensuring a rounded education in all schools.”

It also touches on the administration of the education system; categories of schools and the stages of education; the management of public educational institutions; employment of teachers; curriculum assessments of students, and even inspection and review of the education system.
Of note too, is the fact that the Bill entails a component that deals specifically with the delivery of education to students with special needs. It outlines that “the special education programme may take the form of an individual education plan tailored to suit the specific or individual needs of the student concerned.”
It also contains a clause that empowers the Minister of Education “to make provision for distance learning education programmes at pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary levels” and yet another that enables the Minister to make provision for continuing adult education programmes.”

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/12/18/education-minister-awaits-new-education-bill/

…as efforts are made to encourage literacy  

“A literate population is going to drive speedier development,” was the declaration of Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, as she reflected on the work of her Ministry during the past year at her end of year press conference on Friday last.

In order to foster literacy, Manickchand said that much needed attention was directed to putting measures in place to ensure that children are firmly on a course to become literate by Grade Four.  But in order to implement the tactics to realise this ambitious goal, Manickchand disclosed that strategic action was imperative.
For instance, she disclosed that because of the formerly prohibitive prices of books used within the school system, coupled with the inability of the system to realise the desired results, it was required of the Ministry to amend and refine the materials utilised to teach.
Moreover, a decision was made by the Ministry to produce over the course of the year two new series – The Roraima Series for Nursery age children and the Atlantic Reader for Primary age children.
“We have already begun using the Roraima Series and we will begin using the Atlantic Series in the New Year…” said the Minister as she boasted of the capabilities of local experts who were tasked with writing the Series, both of which are accompanied by workbooks.

And Minister Manickchand is convinced that the reading materials are of such high quality that they will be of international benefit, although they were written with the Guyanese/Caribbean child in mind.
And they were so crafted, the Minister observed, since the writers benefited from the guidance of international literacy standards and benchmarks that could effectively trace the learning process of children.
“We would know, that once a child finishes, successfully, a particular chapter, exactly which benchmark and standard they would have met in the effort to making our children literate by Grade Four,” said the Minister, as she also spoke of measures in place to strengthen their literacy skills even after the Grade Four level.
And as efforts were being directed to improve literacy, the Minister noted that the Ministry was also cognisant of the need to ensure that both teachers and students are comfortable in the schooling environment.
Moves to address this were evident by the procurement and distribution of text books within the school system and the provision of adequate furniture.
Moreover, the Minister at her press conference said that she was only too pleased to report that textbooks for core subject areas of Mathematics, English, Social Studies and Science were procured for all children attending public primary schools. As such, she noted that it is expected that each child should be in possession of a personal copy of the said texts.
Additionally, relevant Mathematics and English textbooks were procured for each student from Grade Seven to 11, and by now each student should have been in possession of his/her own copy, the Minister said. She went on to point out too that “this is the first time in our country that we have procured these core texts for each and every child across the country as personal copies.”
Meanwhile, in the quest to ensure that furniture is not an issue, Manickchand said that Government, through the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, or through collaborations between the two, has been strategically and consciously procuring furniture requested by schools for each child so that they are comfortably accommodated.
Manickchand had, in August of this year, informed that deliberate efforts were being fostered by the Ministry to not only improve the delivery of education, but to ensure that children are in a comfortable learning atmosphere. For this reason, she said that the Ministry had strategic measures in place to ensure that each public school is outfitted with adequate furniture.

“Every single school, (whether) nursery, primary or secondary, is supposed to have enough furniture for all of our children to sit comfortably,” Minister Manickchand said.
The Ministry has therefore been on a mission to address known shortcomings in this regard, by finding out directly from individual schools of their needs, informed the Education Minister.
With this information in hand, she said that efforts were made to specifically procure the needed furniture and transport same to the various schools across the country.
But according to the Minister, “if schools were not vigilant and say I need 10 (furniture) when they really needed 12 or 15 then they may be short, but I would not like to hear that.”
However, she noted that should a school not be in receipt of the quantity of furniture it requires, the administration of that school will be answerable.
“We will ask why is your school short?. Because this Government made sure that enough money and a lot of effort went into planning how every school is going to get furniture for their children by the beginning of the term, and we should be in that place right now,” the Minister asserted.
She however, noted that while the focus this year was on ensuring that children are comfortable in their schooling environment, efforts will be made by Government to specifically cater to the teachers in the budget next year.
“So we are doing it in phases…next year we will have enough furniture for all the teachers of this country, whether it be chairs and desks, lockers, or the other kinds of things that teachers need…We are saying that next year we want all of our teachers to be comfortable in the same way that all our children should be comfortable now.”

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/12/17/shortcomings-in-education-system-being-addressed/

Even as Guyana’s already longest serving Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds remains tight-lipped about his future plans, speculation continues to mount that the PPP/C will field a new candidate for the number two spot at general elections and there are said to be several frontrunners.

Analysts and observers told this newspaper that government’s best prospects at this time were current Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett or Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony. However others have noted that given Minister of Education Priya Manickchand’s “in your face” attitude, the PPP/C could likely go with her. In recent months, Manickchand’s public profile has also risen sharply via the $10,000 cash handout to the parents of children in public schools. Minister in the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill has also been floated by some as a possibility in an effort for the party to show the ethnic balance that Hinds brought.

Asked by Stabroek News about his availability for another run, the 71-year-old Hinds would only respond by querying from the reporter, with a smile, “Will you sponsor me?”

Pressed on if his response meant no, the Prime Minister repeated his question.

Speculation is rife that given its reduced support in two consecutive elections and at its weakest point in many decades, the PPP/C will pick someone who would give it a real shot at garnering broader electoral support. Rodrigues would be seen as someone who could attract votes from the Amerindian community.

The tightly government-controlled, State-owned Guyana Chronicle editorialized recently on Hinds’ political allegiance to the ruling party and even raised the prospect of him bowing out of the number two post in what might be interpreted as a sign of his possible departure even before elections.

“As the country heads into another general election, forcibly propelled by an Opposition hell-bent on a destructive pathway that will cost this country much taxpayers’ dollars through another truncated PPP/C Government, it is hoped that, even if not in the capacity of Prime Minister, Guyana’s beloved Sam Hinds will not desert the party that he joined decades ago at the behest of a ‘brother in struggle’ and will continue his patriarchal role in the governmental construct through which he has served Guyana and its people so long and so well,” the editorial titled ‘Sam Hinds stayed the course’ stated.

A source close to government asserted that Hinds will not be the Prime Ministerial candidate come next elections and adverted to the top five candidates. “Well that is true Comrade Sam will not be returning and it would be unfair to ask him again…he has given so much so”.

“People you may want to watch are Carolyn (Rodrigues-Birkett), Priya (Manickchand), Frank (Anthony), Ashni (Singh), don’t rule out Ashni and even Bishop Edghill,” the source added.

Political analyst Dr. Henry Jeffrey, when asked to weigh in on the issue, said that while Hinds has served the government loyally over the 22 years maybe it was time for him to go in the interest of appearing fair and not having a person serve in one capacity for too many years.

“Sam has been quite loyal to a point where, as I have argued in my column many a time, he has been able to accommodate the PPP establishment of political/ethnic dominance in a philosophical stance with a solution to our ethnic problem in some distant future,” Jeffrey, who was a longstanding parliamentarian and Minister with the PPP/C, said.

“When (former President) Cheddi (Jagan) died and Sam became president for a short time some might have tried to influence him in a radical direction but the PPP and the Civic had an agreement and Sam stuck to that. Sam was never viewed as any major threat to the PPP,” he added.

Jeffrey posits that the question on if Hinds should be replaced was not particularly relevant, for although he does not bring any support to the PPP he has not been losing them support either. However, he said that Hind has been there a long time which goes against the grain of the modern understanding of how long public officials should remain in office and on this ground maybe it was time for the PM to go. His choice of a replacement was Rodrigues-Birkett.

Another commentator, Christopher Ram feels that replacement or not of Hinds does not make a difference to the party. “I do not think it will make an iota of a difference”.

“Of the three (Manickchand, Rodrigues-Birkett and Edghill) the only one I have any regard for is Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett. I think she is a genuinely decent woman who has been able to maintain that decency because of her portfolio. Ms Priya Manickchand’s capacity to abuse a friendly foreign diplomat is one thing but her role in degrading parents over $10,000 because the PPP/C “cares” was both shameful and shameless at the same time. As for Mr. Edghill, I suggest that he go back and read the Bible and see how Jesus Christ dealt with the state and its excesses, and with the poor,” Ram stated.

Jeffrey said that for continuity the party, particularly now that everyone, including the PPP, is speaking about the formation of alliances, may still choose a Prime Minister from the Civic component. He thinks too that it will still make sense to choose an African-Guyanese.

“If not an African-Guyanese, Amerindians are the next most strategic and here Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett can be useful,” Jeffrey said.

Hinds, a Canadian-trained chemical engineer has presided over the telecommunications, broadcasting, bauxite and electricity sectors during his 22-year tenure as constitutionally the President’s principal assistant.  He is also Leader of Government Business in the National Assembly.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2014/news/guyana/12/16/will-no-2-next-pppc-ticket/