Guyana has changed significantly – Education Minister

…calls for more educators to meet growing teaching demand

As the government of Guyana works assiduously to ensure children from every corner of the country have easy access to high quality secondary education and modern facilities, Education Minister Priya Manickchand recently revealed that the ministry will need a significant number of educators to cater for these learners.
The minister made this highlight last week during a recent edition of the Guyana Dialogue, whilst speaking on the programme the minister revealed that in an effort to achieve universal secondary education the ministry has already began to construct several secondary schools across the country. In fact, the Minister revealed that majority of these new schools are being built in hinterland areas such as communities in regions One (Barima-Waini) and Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
“We’re looking to achieve universal secondary education. What that means is that every child of secondary age should be allowed to access a high-quality secondary education. Right now, in region 1, we’re building five secondary schools…In Region Seven, we’re building at Jawalla, at Karrau, at probably one more in the Upper Mazaruni.”

The minister highlighted that a total of 26 secondary schools are currently being erected across Guyana, while several existing schools were rehabilitated and expanded in some cases. In this regard the minister revealed that a significant number of teachers will be needed to staff these new intuitions. She noted that the ministry has already begun works to bolster the teacher’s workforce, in fact she noted that through government interventions one of the country’s leading tertiary educational institutions the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) has been dispersing a significant number of teachers into the education system to date.
“We are training more teachers numerically and qualitatively than we have ever trained before. Historically, CPCE would be able to graduate just about 535 teachers a year. That’s the maximum number they were ever able to graduate. We’ve expanded the college in many different ways by going online, by creating new satellite centers across the country, by staffing them differently…Last year, we graduated 1,778 teachers. This year, we graduated 1,502 teachers. We have a numerically larger amount and more trained teachers in the system.”
On this point the Miniter revealed that in light of a shortage of teachers to teach several subjects such as Physical Education and Sport (PE), Music and some Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET subjects) the ministry will continue to put systems in place to ensure a significant number of teachers are entering the system each year.
Moreover, the education minister revealed that there has been a decline of teachers leaving the country to peruse job opportunities in foreign countries. In fact, she noted that in some cases some teachers are migrating back into the country to continue their service.
“Guyana has changed significantly. I know there was a time when we used to bleed teachers to various countries. I have cousins who went to Botswana, because I come from a family of teachers, and I have very good friends who went to the Bahamas You used to have plane loads going out. We don’t see that now. We’re not seeing that in the country right now In fact, what we get at the Ministry of Education is teachers coming to us to say, I’m returning, and I want to reconnect my service so that they have a continuous service. So we’re not seeing a mass exodus.”

Reduced teacher to learner ratio
Meanwhile, last month during the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) 90th graduation exercise which saw a total of 1502 teachers graduating, Education Minister Priya Manickchand explained that once the graduates are dispatched across the country, the learning experience for students should be significantly enhanced.
“In Region 9, we have 5,924 learners at the primary level. We had 176 trained teachers. We’re adding 83 trained teachers this year. That will bring down our class size or our ratio of 33 students to one pupil to one trained teacher to 22 pupils to one trained teacher. Do you see how we’re moving closer and closer to our ideal numbers and ratio?”
This scenario, the minister explained, will be replicated across all administrative regions as more and more teachers become trained. In fact, across the majority of the regions, there has been an increase in the number of teachers being trained. For instance, in Region Ten during the period 2015 to 2020, there were 182 trained teachers but from 2020 to 2024, that figure stood at 377.