Guyana participating in UN’s Transforming Education Summit

…importance of local school feeding programme highlighted at UN

Guyana is currently being represented at the United Nations Transforming Education Summit held in New York from September 16 to September 19, 2022.
The Education Ministry’s Chief Planning Officer, Nicola Johnson; Legal Officer and Public Relations Manager, Murtland Haley along with Guyana’s top performing Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) 2022 student, Bhedesh Persaud and Loiselle Robinson, a teacher from Region One (Barima-Waini) are attending the event.
Over the past few days, the team has benefited from numerous discussions. These included Schools 2030: Reimagining the Roles of Schools, Systems and Societies for the Future of Teaching and Learning; Learning Passport: A Digital Future for Every Child; Tackling Inequality and Transforming Classrooms through Social and Emotional Learning; and Financial Literacy: A Universal 21st Century Skill – Lessons Learned from Low- and Middle-Income Countries. The Transforming Education Summit was convened in response to a global crisis in education – one of equity and inclusion, quality and relevance. Many studies have shown that this crisis is having a devastating impact on the futures of children and youth globally.

The summit provides a unique opportunity to elevate education to the top of the global political agenda and to mobilise action, ambition, solidarity and solutions to recover pandemic-related learning losses and sow the seeds to transform education in a rapidly changing world.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry’s School Feeding Coordinator, Mahendra Phagwah, is also in New York at the invitation of the United Nations Foundation to attend the Transforming Education Summit.
Phagwah is representing Guyana as a speaker at several high-level events joining Heads of States and Ministers of Education, where he is speaking on why school feeding is important to transforming education at the Ford’s Foundation by the United Nations Foundation and Reimaging the Future of Learning for Sustainability and Inclusivity on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Phagwah is also the only Guyanese researcher behind the “By Us For Us, Rewiring Education for a New Generation” launched in Dubai, UAE of last year which has now led to the launching of a new report “Rewiring Education for People and Planet” at the Transforming Education Summit.
The report was developed in partnership with the Education Commission, and pulls together the main outcomes and recommendations from the Rewired Summit to make sure they are taken forward and implemented. The report presents six concrete, win-win solutions that align action across sectors and stakeholders for which education is both the fundamental vehicle and goal.
In June 2022, Samuel Haynes and Hansranie Budnie joined Education Minister Priya Manickchand in Paris, France, to represent Guyana at the Pre-Summit. The two participated in a dedicated Youth Forum with their topic, “The Right to be Heard”.
Manickchand believes strongly that it is imperative that the young people of Guyana are exposed to local global leadership on various issues. As such, under her leadership, numerous young people from across Guyana have been given opportunities share their views and make positive contributions not only to the country’s education sector, but to the overall development of Guyana.