BETTERING education delivery has been one of the focal areas of the PPP/C Government, in recognition of the fact that an educated populace is key to the development of a nation.
Its investments to date have realised tremendous benefits, as the country’s performance at the primary and secondary levels has grown over the years.
But this has not always been the case, as successes were only evident in city schools mostly, and which, each year took the cream of the results. Recognising this, greater attention has been paid to equality among all schools.
This realisation has, in recent times, allowed schools outside of Georgetown to have better access to quality education through the delivery of teaching aids, text books, and teacher training to effectively administer the school’s curriculum.
The construction of modern institutions and the development of the Education Strategic Plan (2008/2013), which was crafted to identify priority policies and strategies, have been aspects pursued.
Since the initiation of the latter, the quality of output has significantly improved – as the increased provision in placement at the nursery level especially in remote regions, improvements in pre-literacy skills, and greater performance at CAPE and CXC, were evident in learning institutions throughout the 10 administrative regions.
Schools throughout the length and breadth of Guyana are now producing top performers, even as the ministry continues to strengthen its partnership with stakeholders, particularly parent/teacher associations and other community social groups.
Last year, the top CSEC performers each gained 15 Grade Ones. These came from Anurada Dev of Queen’s College, Georgetown, and Shalita Appadu of New Amsterdam Multilateral, Region Six.
This success was also observed in the Mining Town of Linden, with Zainab Abdul Karim of Mackenzie High and Seriena Alli of Abrams Zuil Secondary, each achieved 13 Grade Ones.
Students of Anna Regina, Abrams Zuil, and Cotton Field Secondary, Region 2; West Demerara, Patentia, Zeeburg and Essequibo Islands secondary schools, Region 3; Bush Lot, Rosignol and Bygeval Secondary Schools, Region 5; Tagore Memorial, Skeldon Line Path and J C Chandisingh, Region 6; and St. Ignatius Secondary, Region 9 were also among top scorers at the 2011 exams.
Ninety-seven of the 188 students who secured Grade One passes in eight or more subjects are from Region 4, followed by Region 6, with 32; Region 2, with 23; and Region 3, with 20.
This year, Sarah Hack of Abrams Zuil copped 16 Grade Ones and there were also several other regional top performers: Bibi Ameena Nazaralie of Saraswati Vidya Nikitan, and Keikel Mahabir of West Demerara Secondary, with 13 Grade Ones each; Roschelle Sparman of Mackenzie High, and Vishwati Oudhram of Saraswati Vidya Nikitan, with 12 Grade Ones each.
At the National Grade Six Assessment in 2011, Terron Alleyne of Regma Primary, Region 10 copped the top spot. C.V. Nunes in Region 2; Leonora, Region Three; Novar, Region 5; and Cumberland, Region 6 were among the top performers.
Sixteen-year-old Sarah Hack, from Abrams Zuil Secondary School on the Essequibo Coast, Region 2, who copped 16 Grades Ones, accredits her success to God and the support of family, friends and teachers.
“My faith and trust in God was very enduring. My success was a really taxing journey overall, with many sleepless nights while studying, but it was well worth it,” she said.
Asked about the work of the school, she pointed out that everyone, including teachers, were disciplined, hard workers, even pushy at times, but it was all for the best.
Over the last three years, Abrams Zuil Secondary has been gaining significant attention for its performances, despite being a little school located on the Essequibo coast. In 2011, the school also secured the first and second top spots for the Region in the CSEC examinations.
The top performer, who will be heading off to College in the United States, come 2013, lauded the teachers in the school system, pointing out that the quality of teaching has improved exponentially.
The school was named after the village.
Spending
Education spending, as a percentage of the National Budget, has risen from 4.4 percent in 1990, to an average of 15 percent over the last seven years. The $24.3B allocation in 2011 was spent on construction and rehabilitation of schools, equipping ICT labs and acquiring of text books. The 2012 allocation is $26.6B.
More than $85.6M was approved by government for the procurement of CXC text books, self-study guides for CXC, revision DVDs, model solutions to difficult answers, geometry sets, graph papers and calculators, which were distributed as part of a pilot project implemented in underperforming schools.
This year’s results showed that this project did bring about improvements in the CSEC results.
Source: (GINA) ; http://guyanachronicle.com/2012/08/24/with-improvements-in-education-system-regions-now-claiming-top-performers