By Chriseana Ramrekah
THE Government of Guyana, with funding from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) under the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF), commissioned the Beterverwagting and Diamond nursery schools on Thursday.

Each of the two was constructed at a cost of $64.5M and have the individual capacity to accommodate 120 pupils.
Both schools are located in Region 4 (Demerara/ Mahaica), with Beterverwagting Nursery in Granville Park, Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara and the Diamond Nursery in 14th Street, Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara.
The BNTF programme, which is currently in its seventh cycle, provides resources to poor communities in order to improve access to basic public services and enhance employability which could reduce beneficiaries’ economic and social vulnerability to risks that impact on income and wellbeing.
Delivering remarks at the Beterverwagting commissioning, Finance Minister and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the CDB, Dr. Ashni Singh reaffirmed the Guyana Government’s belief that there is no investment more important than in the country’s people, particularly young people.

Clearly reflected
He said this is clearly reflected in the Government’s policy choices, with the education sector allocated $28.7 billon, representing the largest sectoral share of resources in the 2013 National Budget.
Singh also pointed out that, last year, the education sector spent $26.5 billion, or 14 percent of the 2012 National Budget, while noting that, in just the same way parents make conscious and responsible decisions everyday at the micro level, regarding their children, the Government makes those choices at the macro level.
He explained that the decisions, about this large investment in the education sector over the years, are made even in the face of competing demands, since they have to find the optimal balance between competing calls on finite resources in areas such as maintaining and delivering existing services and constructing, rehabilitating and maintaining community roads.
“But our Government has been resolving its conviction that, amongst all very legitimate competing demands for resources, there is no better investment to make than in education and in educating the young people of our country,” he reiterated.
Singh assured that the Government will continue to embrace this conviction and there will be no greater priority than in ensuring that the young people of Guyana are properly prepared for the future.
According to him, it is no accident that Guyana has achieved universal primary education, since the Government set a target that no child in Guyana shall be denied the opportunity to access and complete primary education.

Challenging circumstances
He indicated that, to achieve this goal, they ensured that primary schools throughout the country were built, equipped and staffed, often times in very challenging circumstances, given the remoteness of some areas.
“But, notwithstanding the remoteness of those villages, we don’t enjoy the luxury, as a country, of saying that remoteness is an excuse for lack of access,” the minister asserted.
He also made reference to efforts at achieving universal secondary education in which the portfolio ministry has had to be innovative in crafting solutions and mobilising resources to finance those solutions.
Singh revealed that they are currently in the advanced stages of designing a US$10M project, which, once implemented, will see Guyana achieving universal secondary education, where every Guyanese child will have access to and will complete secondary education.
The Finance Minister said he is also aware of the ministry’s efforts to encourage universal nursery education and, notwithstanding that nursery education is not compulsory, they have seen the value of it and are encouraging the widest possible participation in this regard.
He said actions by the Government to ensure a well educated population does not end there but, recognising the need for alternative pathways to technical and vocational education, the Government has embarked on a TVET training programme, building new TVET centres where they did not exist and equipping and expanding those in existence.
Minister Singh spoke, too, about the Government’s investments in university education, highlighting that the University of Guyana (UG) has been serving the nation and moreover the world for 50 years and, apart from the Turkeyen Campus, a Tain Campus was established in Berbice.
He disclosed that, in the 2013 Budget, there is a special allocation of $50M, with which UG is encouraged to develop online programmes with the aim of providing a university education to persons who would not otherwise be able to acquire it.
He alluded, as well, to the Government’s nationwide Information and Communication Technology (ICT) programme, which has many elements, such as legislation to liberalise the telecommunication sector, delivery of e-governance services, access to ICT, such as the one laptop per family (OLPF) programme and ICT education.
The Finance Minister pointed out that the benefits of ICT are not exclusive to young persons and, just as basic literacy was seen as an indispensable prerequisite 50 years ago, ICT has become equally so in Guyana and more widely the world over.
“The vastest of opportunities that are unleashed by access to information and communication technology provide a strong enough incentive for every young person of our country and every young person of the world to want to equip themselves with those skills,” he observed.
Speaking at the Diamond function, Singh said the rapid development which is taking place in Guyana is not always obvious to persons, while stating that Diamond is a good example of prosperity.

Thriving community
He said Diamond is a thriving community which includes three banking facilities, a regional hospital, a secondary school, fire station and Police station.
Singh recognised that persons who would not have previously been able to own their own homes can now do so, since, within the last 15 to 20 years, the Government has given out almost 100,000 house lots.
He acknowledged that the struggle for improvement of the human condition is ongoing and never ending and that is a good thing, because persons must always want to improve their conditions.
Singh said the Government wants a Guyana where every Guyanese can realise their aspirations and get as well educated as possible and persons need to be able to recognise that national projects will contribute to the capacity of the Government to meet the needs of the citizens better.
In her speech at Beterverwagting, Education Minister Priya Manickchand declared that the nursery sector is at the best place it has ever been and more widely the entire education sector.
She said, while nursery education is not compulsory, 85 percent nursery age children are in school and this represents the highest in the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Manickchand said 69 per cent of nursery teachers are trained and there is one headmistress and six teachers at the Beterverwagting school, all of whom were trained.
She said, while untrained teachers can provide children with a good education, the pupils at the school are more likely to get the best when taught by trained teachers.
The Minister emphasised that Guyana has moved from having 30 percent trained teachers to boasting more than 70 percent trained teachers and this is as a result of the Government’s conscious action to ensure that a large number of teachers are trained.
Addressing the parents gathered for the ceremony, she said that, while the Government remains committed to ensuring that all children get the best education possible, they also need parents to play an active role in the process of educating their children.
She called on fathers to be more involved in their children’s lives and for all parents to engage in this partnership to assure the success of their children.
Manickchand told the Diamond gathering that the conversation has moved from getting children in schools to ensuring the delivery of quality education in the classrooms.
Diamond Nursery has a headmistress and seven teachers and the Minister said, except for one teacher who is in college, all of the other teachers are trained.
She advised the parents that they need to challenge themselves to bring out the best in their children and get them to make the best of their environment.

CAPTIONS: Photos stored in graphics as “nursery schools”
IMG_7168: Education Minister, Priya Manickchand (left) and Finance minister, Dr. Ashni Singh join some of the children in the symbolic cutting of the ribbon to commission the Beterverwagting Nursery School
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