The Ministry of Education on Wednesday fulfilled another promise by the Government of Guyana with the commencement of the distribution of brand-new textbooks to all primary school children in the public system.
The textbooks cover each core subject area, Mathematics, English Language, Science and Social Studies.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand visited the No. 48 Primary School and the Corriverton Primary Schools in the East Berbice Corentyne region (Region Six) where she distributed the textbooks and underscored the importance of each child having access to their own textbook.
She highlighted that it is the government’s aim to ensure that there is equitable access to educational resources to every pupil and gone are the days when only a handful of pupils were privileged to own textbooks.
“We have gone out and we have looked at each book, we have looked at what causes or helps to bring about success and we have bought those for every single child. So it’s not the wealthy children alone who can do well, it’s not the children in private school alone who will get the resources, it’s not the parents who have fancy jobs, it is every single child.”
Minister Manickchand also spoke to parents about the importance of caring for them so that other pupils can benefit from the investment over the years.
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.
Over the coming weeks, thousands of pupils from Grades One through Six in every region of Guyana will receive their textbooks. (Ministry of Education press release)