More than 50% secondary schools have counselling services – Minister

Education Minister Priya Manickchand has said that more than half of the secondary learning institutions across Guyana are equipped with staff who are dedicated to counselling children.
She made this statement during a recent episode of “Guyana Dialogue”.
This has also helped the Ministry see a stronger retention rate of school dropouts and students who might not be attending schools regularly for various reasons.
“We have in 80+ high schools right now, out of 116, and we’re hiring where we don’t have, staff dedicated to counselling, guidance and career counselling as well as psychological counselling. So as soon as a child leaves, we’re supposed to know, or doesn’t turn up to school we’re supposed to know. We’re supposed to be seeing better retention rates,” the Minister stated.

“With other efforts to try to, look for individually, children who are absent from exams and so on and bring them back in the system, we’re seeing a stronger retention rate,” she added.
In an Inter-American Development Bank report conducted in 2015, it was reported that the country’s overall school dropout rate is about 2.0 per cent while the Caribbean has an average school dropout rate of 20.
Meanwhile, in April 2023, it was reported that Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) currently has the country’s lowest dropout rate of 0.1 per cent.
According to Senior School Welfare Officer (SSWO) of Region Five, Gloria Davidson-James, the department has been working hard to realise change.
She noted that welfare workers are responsible for many of the positive changes in the lives of some school children.
“What we do in Region Five is that we work on different ideas, focusing on different behavioural patterns that children would have. That is why the numbers that we are having with children in school is so low and attendance is high.”