Education Minster announces nationwide shade houses for secondary schools

In a move to promote sustainability in agricultural education, Education Minister Priya Manickchand announced that every secondary school across Guyana will soon be equipped with a shade house.
The announcement was made during the Ministry of Education’s annual TVET Fair & Exposition, hosted by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Unit, under the theme “Empowering Youths, Elevating Skills: TVET as a Catalyst for Inclusion.”
“By the end of next term, every single secondary school will have a shade house capable of producing their own agricultural products. This is possible through a collaboration between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture.” The Minister declared.
Manickchand also praised schools that have already adopted the initiative, highlighting that several institutions are now producing and selling value-added products such as pepper sauce, jams, and thyme. These ventures, she noted, are already supporting the self-sustainability of school agriculture departments.
“Many of our schools, as you’ll see walking through this exposition, are already producing and adding value to their crops. They’re packaging, branding, and selling these items, which is an excellent model of self-sufficiency,” she added.
The education minister pointed to examples such as The Bishops’ High School and a school in Region Two, both of which have set up full production lines.
The Bishops’ High School, in particular, has launched a creative and well-branded line of products, demonstrating the success and scalability of the initiative.
She emphasised that the ministries’ collaboration is not only helping students gain practical skills but is also fostering entrepreneurship and innovation at the school level.
“We’ve seen that once a shade house is built and production begins, schools naturally progress into value-added manufacturing. This is exactly what we’re encouraging, and we’re excited to see it take root nationwide,” she said.
As of October 2024, about 70 of the 100 shade houses recorded as being constructed in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) for the cultivation of peppers have been completed.
The shade houses, constructed by the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) through the Ministry of Agriculture, each have a capacity to accommodate 400 plants.