Baksh outlines benefits available to teachers, students
EDUCATION Minister Shaik Baksh yesterday announced that the Government is working out the modalities and costing for a programme that will see every family receiving a laptop computer.
He made the disclosure at a meeting with senior education administrators at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), in Battery Road, Kingston, Georgetown.
They were reviewing the 2008-2013 Education Strategic Plan for the first quarter of this year and Baksh disclosed that the initiative, which is probably the first of its kind in the Caribbean, is the brainchild of President Bharrat Jadgeo.
The one-day caucus was aimed to gauging the progress made, identifying the challenges and outline the way forward to achieve the goals and objectives set out, a release said.
It said the plan envisions equipping all secondary schools and 50 per cent of primary schools with information technology (IT) laboratories by 2013 and Baksh has been plugging for the benchmarks to be achieved within another year.
The release said, according to the Minister, the targets cannot be achieved with Government’s resources alone and, as such, require the involvement of the Guyanese diaspora and old students’ associations of the various schools.
Earlier in the year, he had reported that about 60 secondary schools already have computers and 60 more are yet to receive.
The release said, at the primary level, he mentioned that close to 60 schools will be equipped with computers this year and more teachers will be trained to deliver the IT curriculum.
Baksh, the release said, pointed out that more than 250 teachers have already been trained to impart the programme at different levels and his ministry is looking to regionalise the training.
He said all education managers have to put their shoulders to the wheel to achieve the targets set and the diligent ones will be recognised for their exemplary effort while their colleagues, who are behind, will be reminded to “get up to speed.”

Culture

The release said Baksh urged the gathering to inculcate in their charges a culture of evaluation, noting that only when they know where they are and how they are moving as a department, will they be able to successfully achieve the benchmarks in the visionary document.
Baksh emphasised that teachers have to be self-motivated and contended that, had this not been a challenge, about 50 per cent of the problems in the school system would have been non-existent.
He said the Government recognises that education is the key to engender growth and development in the country and has been continuously investing heavily in the sector over the years.
Baksh said this trend is a firm indication of the Government’s commitment to improve the sector performance, including the welfare of teachers.
He said the Administration has been regularly and incrementally increasing the salaries of teachers and is currently in negotiation with Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) to improve their package.
Apart from this, Baksh said teachers today enjoy uniform allowance, salary hikes for upgrading their qualification; those from the coastland performing duties in the hinterland regions receive an additional $30,000 remote area incentive; 100 teachers annually receive free scholarships to further their studies at University of Guyana (UG) and, as part of their benefits, headteachers are entitled to duty free concessions.
He also revealed that his ministry is moving to accelerate the housing loans programme for teachers.
Baksh said, too, that the Government has not left students out of the picture and all of them  will, this year, receive uniform allowances.
He said Government is spending in excess of $1billion this year on a national school feeding programme geared to improve students’ performance and attendance at the pre-primary and primary levels.
Baksh said those are just some of the tremendous developments that have been attained in the sector over the past two decades and challenged senior administrators to exert their best efforts to ensure the progressive trend is maintained and expanded.