…says Guyana’s education system in urgent need of reform
Recognising that times have changed and left Guyana’s education system behind, Education Minister Priya Manickchand has made it clear that Government would ensure it passes the Education Act into law and push through education reforms.
Manickchand made this comment on Wednesday, during the examination of the 2020 budget estimates in the National Assembly. In response to an observation made by opposition Member of Parliament Jermaine Figueira, Manickchand acknowledged the need to reform the education sector.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand
“We have an Education Act that is over 100 years old. We had laid a new bill in Parliament in 2015, but it was never passed. We will be passing that shortly. But what we have been taught throughout the years has not evolved to the realities of our world and the realities of Guyana,” she said.
“And that’s not to blame anyone. We have taught our teachers to teach using chalk and talk, so we cannot blame the teachers for not evolving from that…we have to change the way we teach. That includes making children thinkers, and the way we teach has to accommodate students being thinkers, rather than regurgitators.”
According to the Minister, education reform must be deep and aimed at eliminating parts of the curriculum that have no practical benefit for students after they leave school. Manickchand noted that education must emphasise parts of the curriculum that would enable children to be competitive in the global age, and teach them life skills.
“How do we do that? The curriculum reform on the way right now, just to say we’re making the work more practical is not enough. We have to say, we are removing some excessive things in the curriculum to make sure we have space to make our primary education more about making our children literate and numerate, so they can use those skills and apply (them) later on.
“That’s not to say we’re removing social studies and science, but we’re not going into the depths of the eyeball. We don’t need, in 2020, to learn only the number of Caricom countries and the reason Caricom came about, but the capitals and the export and the prime minister. We can google that in this age. It’s a different time.”
Back in 2014, Manickchand, as Education Minister in the previous People’s Progressive Party (PPP) dispensation, had laid the Education Bill in the National Assembly. The bill was intended to repeal the Education Act which was in place in Guyana since 1876 and was last amended in 1976.
When the former APNU/AFC Government took office, it set up a Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the education sector, holding hearings across the country with parents, guardians, teachers, religious leaders, unions, and the private sector on their perception of the state of the education system, as well as recommendations for its enhancement.
Among the commission’s findings was that there is a greater need for welfare officers who are equipped with guidance and counselling skills, and recommended that there be one such officer in each school. Following the COI, the then Government had announced it would set up a Department of Education System Innovation and Reform (DESIR) programme. (G3)
