“Clumsy” relationship between Education & Local Govt Ministries must be addressed – Min Manickchand

– as Govt works to advance hinterland education

To strategically reduce the inequalities between the delivery of education on the hinterland and the coastland, the Education, Local Government, and Regional Development Ministries must work cohesively.
This is the position taken by Education Minister Priya Manickchand, who has contended that the relationship between the two ministries needs ‘polishing’.

According to Manickcahnd, a substantial amount of her ministry’s $135.2 billion budgetary allocation for 2024 will go towards the advancement of education in the hinterland regions.
The money will see several new schools, dorms, and teachers’ living quarters constructed in Orealla Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); Jawalla Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni); and Monkey Mountain in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), among others.
Additionally, children residing in the hinterland will benefit from the grants to purchase classroom supplies, hot meals through the national school feeding programme, and textbooks, including past papers, to prepare them for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination.
While the projects are catered for under the Education Ministry’s budget, it is the Local Government and Regional Development Ministry that has to maintain the infrastructure for schools, dorms, and teachers’ living quarters.
That ministry also supervises and pays for the wages of educators, among other duties.
In a live interview on EdYou FM on Monday, Minister Manickchand disclosed that the relationship between the two ministries is “a little clumsy.”.
On this point, she explained that there were instances whereby works aimed at developing education in the hinterland were sent out by her ministry but were not executed by the Local Government Ministry.
“We put out the policy. So, we will say something like want each apartment of a teacher to have a fridge, a stove, a microwave, a bed, ten plates, ten cups… whatever it is that we want them to have, and then it is the region that has to implement that through their budget because we don’t have a budget for it through central ministry. So that relationship needs frankly some polishing up because we have to make sure what the government intends is what is happening on the ground, and I don’t think in every case that’s happening; I’ve seen that,” Minister Manickchand explained.
The education minister explained that this issue must be addressed as the government continues to work towards delivering its promise of universal education across Guyana, and the government’s investments in the sector are already yielding fruit.
“We saw quite several children coming out to the national schools. What I saw was that in one year we had more children at the hinterland dorms coming to the national schools for all four years before that put together. So, I am very convinced that these kinds of resources bring great benefit. I expect by mid-next year we should have universal secondary education. All across the hinterland, we have secondary education for all the children in the hinterland,” Minister Manickchand stated.

Construction of hinterland schools
Between Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Esequibo), there are 239 schools serving 32,603 learners.
However, most of the schools are primary schools, with just 13 being secondary schools: three in Region One, three in Region Seven, three in Region Eight, and four in Region Nine.
Though the 13 secondary schools cater to 7,884 students, there are currently 20,638 pupils in the 161 primary schools.
These statistics were provided by the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) feasibility studies, which were made public in 2022. This is the same study which prompted the government to devise a plan to construct new schools in the hinterland and other remote areas.
Many of the schools are equipped with laboratories, an information technology (IT) lab, a main auditorium, and modern classrooms, which are equipped with interactive boards and computers. and a library, among other important amenities.
One such facility is Abram Zuil Secondary, which is located in Essequibo Region 2 (Pomeroon-Supenaam).