THE Ministry of Education in their drive to educate Guyana’s children, and just a year after its inception, commissioned the Good Hope Nursery School yesterday under their motto: ‘Working Together To Achieve The Best.’Jennifer Bourne, Regional Educational Officer, noted at the commissioning of the Good Hope Nursery on the East Coast of Demerara that the community had been eagerly awaiting the opening of this nursery school and thanked the Government of Guyana and the Regional Democratic Council.

She said that Region 4 (Demerara-Mahaica) performance has improved and with the addition of this school the path to greatness can be achieved. “The Good Hope Nursery was founded in March 2014 since it was recognised that the community produce a large number of school-aged children and transportation cost was enormous and not affordable by most parents,” she said.
The school, she related, started with 49 boys, 32 girls and 4 teachers. “This commissioning shows the Government’s commitment towards the betterment of the education system,” Bourne said as she concluded her remarks.
Regional Executive Officer for Region 4, Deolall Rooplall, said that in 2012 the Regional Council met and discussed the possibility of the construction of a nursery school in the Good Hope area. “In 2013 the budget was presented for the need for a school in Good Hope, it was summited and project was placed as a priority,” he noted.
“The Government give their no-objection to the construction of the Good Hope Nursery and the council was allocated $20M but the project was completed at a cost of $15M.” The balance of $5M, he noted, was utilised to upgrade the tiling on four nursery school floors.
Rooplall lauded the Government of Guyana, the Housing Ministry and the Education Ministry for the works they have been doing. He noted that “this project would not have been here today if it wasn’t for the Housing Ministry as they decided to craft this new scheme and integrated and allocated space for the school and other recreational areas. There is also a new site adjoining the nursery school for a secondary school in this area.”
He complimented the administration on the works done for the new school. He alluded to the fact that Region 4 has the largest number of public schools with the commissioning of the Good Hope Nursery being the 57th nursery school in the region.
“The success of the children greatly depends on the work of the teachers. Early preparations for the students will also improve and the community will be the beneficiaries.”
Meanwhile, during his remarks Chief Education Officer Olato Sam declared that the commissioning of the Good Hope Nursery is a fulfillment of a promise by the Ministry of Education. He noted that it is the ministry’s mission to provide the best quality of education for the nation’s children and to find different ways to deliver quality education to all our children.
According to Sam, there are many programmes that the Education Ministry has embarked on to assist our country’s children and one such initiative is the educational programmes that are aired on the Learning Channel.
He said that at present there is a programme that is being rolled out “to start them (children) on the right foot, we need to start them at an early age,” adding that this will make the transition from nursery to primary and then to secondary very smooth.
The Ministry of Education is extremely proud of the attainment of universal primary education in Guyana and the percentage of teachers who have attained recognisable standards. He related that the ministry is currently working towards the attainment of universal secondary education “and shortly that too will be a reality.”
FOUR NEW SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Moreover, he said, the ministry will be commissioning in the near future four new secondary schools across the country and Region 4 will be the recipient of two.
ROLE OF PARENTS
Parents, he emphasised, as well as the communities need to recognise their role in their children’s education. “We need strong parents, we allow our parents to visit the schools every month,” he noted as he urged parents to get involved in their children’s school life.

By Rebecca Ganesh