Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:54 AM
Jul 22, 2014 News
‘Ambition without action will yield no results’ is a notion that is being fully embraced by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.
According to the Education Minister, it was this very notion that has helped to propel the education sector, and by extension the country, to a better place today.
“If we did not invest in it (education) and all we did was say we’d like to see this happen; that we want to see that happen and we didn’t put the money there, it would not have happened. That is what is required, actual funding,” asserted Manickchand.
At the time Manickchand was addressing a gathering of stakeholders at the Lichas Hall in Linden on Friday.
She added that the evolution of education in Guyana has been one that saw the Ministry embracing “actions to meet our words, actions to meet our desires, actions to fulfil the promises that we make to the people…”
“We are very pleased to see this kind of growth in the sector,” said the Minister. She said that investment has not only allowed for more trained teachers in the system, but has also helped to ensure equity in the delivery of education across the country.
She said that while the area of Mathematics still requires much attention, there was a noticeable improvement when the results of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) were released earlier this year.
This was characterised, the Minister said, by 45 per cent of the candidates, passing. There was also an improved English performance among candidates which translated to more than 50 per cent passes in the subject this year.
Growth in the system, Manickchand said, is reflected in the fact that students from various sections of the country are outperforming or performing on par with their Georgetown counterparts.
This development, she attributed, to the fact that resources are distributed throughout the country equitably, adding that “what Georgetown gets, Linden gets…If we give a child at St Margaret’s (primary) five exercise books, a child in Linden gets five exercise books; if we give a (Georgetown) teacher chalk, cardboard and crayons, a teacher in Linden gets chalk, cardboard and crayons as well as the teacher in Mabaruma…”
It is this approach, the Minister said, that has therefore helped to guard against top performances coming from a concentrated section of the country.
“Back in the day you couldn’t dream of being in Linden and topping this country; you had to come from Stella Maris, or St Margaret’s…You had no hopes of your children topping the country, you had to come from one of those Georgetown schools because they had all the resources,” recounted the Minister.
But improved performances are not only seen at the primary level. Manickchand said that the secondary level performances reflect a similar trend.
“From 2008 all the way to 2013 (and I hope it can be true for this year too), except for 2010, every single year a Guyanese student topped, not only Guyana but the Caribbean, at CXC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examination).”
She reminded the attentive gathering in the Lichas Hall that Guyana was able to claim five of eight outstanding awards offered by the Caribbean Examination Council last year, which is indicative of the investments by Government yielding tangible results in the education sector.
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