BYGEVAL Secondary is now an A-List school following the unveiling of a commemorative plaque by Education Minister, Ms. Priya Manickchand on Tuesday in this regard. Like the recently commissioned Rosignol Secondary School, significant investments were made by the Government of Guyana (GOG) in collaboration with the MOE and the Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) administration to ensure that Bygeval Secondary School attained A-List status. In that regard, several works were executed, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, learning materials and curriculum improvement.

Ms. Manickchand spoke of the notable investments made by the ministry and the region to elevate Bygeval Secondary to an A-List school. She also highlighted the rationale behind making Bygeval an A-List school as well as some of the critical areas in which the school has benefited from this upgrade.

The Rationale
The minister explained that Region 5 never had an A-List school which meant that children from the region who did well at the National Grade Six Assessment Examinations would have had to travel to another region for the kind of quality education that matched their ability. “Of all the coastal regions, Region 5 was the only region that did not have A-List schools, so every time your children did well, we would have to send them to either Region 6 or Region 4 to get a good quality education. We at the ministry did not think this situation was fair to the parents and children of the region, so we set about identifying two schools at the two extremes of the region – Rosignol Secondary and Bygeval Secondary – and set about making these two schools, A-Listed schools,” Manickchand explained.

Upgrades made to Bygeval
“We rehabilitated several sections of the school by painting and doing electrical work,” she said. “All the science labs (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) were completely refurbished. They are now properly equipped with furniture, equipment and chemicals. The Home Economics lab was also refurbished and is now outfitted with furniture, equipment and other materials. The IT Lab boasts 15 new computers, and servicing was done to the other computers bringing the total number of computers in the lab to 30. This means that every child in that class can access his or her own unit when using the lab. The Industrial Technology lab is now equipped with adequate tools and other supplies while electricity has been restored to the lab. The Allied Arts department has also benefited from a number of indoor and outdoor sporting gears and equipment. And the Agricultural Science Department also received equipment and tools so that the department could be extended to include poultry production. The library is also equipped with reference books for various subject areas; in addition, some enrichment material has been added,” the minister disclosed.

Text books
“For text books, we have been really trying to provide as much as we can, even more than other A-List schools,” she stated. “In Grades 7, 8 and 9, each student has the recommended text books for the following subjects: Mathematics, English A, Social Studies, Science, Agricultural Science, Home Economics. In addition, there are also class sets for Spanish. In Grade 10 and 11, each student has a copy of the recommended texts for the following 14 subjects: Mathematics, English A, Social Studies, Integrated Science, Information Technology, Principles of Business, Agriculture Science, Economics, Office Administration, Principles of Accounts, Spanish, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. For both classes, there are class sets for Geography, as well as those texts required for English B. To complete the text books allocation in Grade 11, there are history texts for each student.

Teachers and Subject Offerings
Bygeval has 38 teachers, 12 of whom are trained graduates, two are untrained graduates, 14 trained teachers and 10 untrained teachers.

Subjects offered
The school currently provides 24 CSEC subjects which are as follows: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Integrated Science, Human and Social Biology, Agricultural Science, Principles of Accounts, Principles of Business, Economics, Office Administration, Information Technology, Food and Nutrition, Home Economics Management, Geography, Social Studies, Caribbean History, English A, English B, Spanish, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Building Technology, Woods, Technical Drawing, and Visual Arts. Soon Clothing and Textile and Physical Education will be added to the curriculum.
Over 45 million dollars was expended on the Bygeval Secondary School to provide text books, chemicals and lab equipment, physical rehabilitation works, computers, furniture, etc., to bring it up to the level of an A-Listed school. Students attending Bygeval Secondary School are assured of a superior quality education with the efforts undertaken by government and the ministry in upgrading the school to an A-Listed status.
What is a List-A or A-List School?
Apart from the five National/Senior Secondary schools which are Queen’s College, The Bishops’ High, Saint Stanislaus College, Saint Rose’s High and Saint Joseph’s High, there are Junior Secondary Schools in the Secondary School System. These are located all over Guyana and are categorised, List A to List D, based on the performance of the school at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) with List A Schools being the highest performers and List D the lowest performers.
Students who would have missed placement at the national or senior secondary schools by a few marks earn placement at List-A schools, sometimes called A List Secondary Schools. These schools are equipped to accommodate and bring out the best academic and extra-curricular performances from its students.
Over the last few years, some of the List A Secondary Schools and the students who attend those schools have been performing as well as, and even better than, some of the Senior Secondary Schools. For example, in 2012, the student who topped the Caribbean at CSEC attended the Abram Zuil Secondary School in Essequibo and in 2013 the student who topped the Caribbean at CSEC attended the Anna Regina Secondary School. Anna Regina Secondary also received the best performance prize in the Caribbean for Technical Vocational Education. These schools are both List A schools.
The minister toured the school and shared in the delight and pleasure expressed by teachers and students. They demonstrated their gratitude at the input made by the Government of Guyana and the Ministry of Education to upgrade their school and pledged to make maximum use of its resources.