…new facility to end long commutes for young learners
The official commissioning of a new nursery school in Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara (ECD) has brought much-needed relief to parents in the community who, until now, had to travel to neighbouring villages such as Enterprise or Melanie to access nursery education. The new school is expected to ease the burden on surrounding institutions and significantly reduce travel time for students.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony of the school on Friday, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand said, “Today [Friday] is a really special day for us here at Non Pareil because before the opening of this school, your children had to go to Enterprise or Melanie from this community, as there was no Non Pareil nursery. And in five years, because nursery children are usually from young parents, young people, because they’re the small babies—those having babies now and in the near future will not know that five years ago, they would have had to take their children to Enterprise or Melanie. This is going to become normal for them. And it should be. That’s what service is.”
Education Minister, Priya Manickchand playing with students at the school
The new Non Pareil Nursery School is outfitted with modern classrooms, child-friendly furniture, and indoor play areas. She also relayed that the school has an array of trained teachers. Manickchand has emphasised that the newly commissioned nursery school represents a deliberate investment in quality early childhood education.
Manickchand noted that the school is staffed with four trained teachers for just 40 pupils, allowing for a significantly lower student-teacher ratio than the national average. “In most nursery schools, one teacher caters to 15 to 20 children. Here, it’s just 10 per teacher, which allows for more individual attention and support,” she explained. She further highlighted the Ministry’s shift towards a more interactive and hands-on approach to early education, focusing on developing literacy, numeracy, motor and life skills tailored to the developmental needs of young learners.
According to Manickchand, one of the Ministry’s core objectives is to ensure that every single child in Guyana is equipped with the fundamental skills of reading, writing and comprehension by the time they reach Grade Four. She emphasised that literacy is not just about decoding words, but about truly understanding the content being read. This goal, she explained, is a cornerstone of the Ministry’s broader strategy to improve learning outcomes at the foundational level.
She went on to highlight that the Education Ministry is preparing to launch a new programme by the end of the month. Once implemented in schools, she expressed confidence that within the next four to five years, every child completing Grade Four will possess the essential literacy and numeracy skills expected at that level.
Meanwhile, Manickchand announced that the Government of Guyana has constructed 54 nursery schools over the past four and a half years as part of a nationwide push to strengthen early childhood education.
“Every child of primary age, every single child of secondary age, can now go to school. And so, what we have right now is that in the last four and a half years, we have built 54 new nursery schools, including this one, across the country. We have reconstructed, meaning broken down and rebuilt, 13 nursery schools. So that’s 54 plus 13. And we have extended 39 nursery schools in this country in the last four and a half years.
Meanwhile, “As for primary schools, we have built 24 new ones in Guyana, reconstructed 21, and extended 36. And we have built, or are currently building, 40 new secondary schools in Guyana as we speak.”
