THE Ministry of Education is collaborating with private schools to enhance their curriculum with Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) as a time-tabled subject. Though several of the private schools in Guyana already have the HFLE subject on their curriculum, Coordinator of the HFLE programme, Colleen King-Cameron believes that the curriculum in both public and private schools should be on par.
“We [Education Ministry] will get to private schools shortly and have them see what the HFLE is doing for students since the curriculum of all public schools in Guyana cater for the subject,” said the coordinator, adding that it is impartial for both the private and public schools to have the subject.
Currently, the subject is being offered to nursery, primary and secondary school students. At the primary school level, Grades One to Six students are being offered the subject, while all students except those in Grades Seven, Eight and Nine are being taught the subject at the secondary level.
“The subject is being taught in a practical or dramatic way,” said Cameron, so as to capture the attention of students.
HFLE seeks to ensure that students are good decision-makers, creative and critical thinkers and have high self-esteem and are able to solve problems maturely. The exposure to HFLE has enabled students to actualise their true potential and become more productive members of their society.
The subject was merged with other subjects when it was introduced to Guyana, but according to Cameron, this was not entirely “working out.” As such, in 2010 the Ministry of Education implemented the programme as a double time-tabled subject in 30 secondary schools across Guyana as a pilot project.
After much positive feedback, the ministry continued the project and expanded it to 40 other secondary schools in the country. According to an evaluation report in 2013, the project has proven fruitful and the Ministry of Education continued to train teachers to equip them with the necessary skills to teach the subject in schools.
The implementation of the HFLE subject was introduced as a result of behavioural problems within and outside the school system. These problems were having a negative impact on the health and well-being of young people and regional Ministers of Education felt that the school should play an important role in addressing the situation.
CARICOM in 1994, under its Standing Committee of Ministers of Education, passed a resolution supporting the development of a comprehensive approach to HFLE. Guyana, Grenada and Haiti among other Caribbean countries then implemented the programme in schools.
The Ministry of Education is currently working to implement the subject at all levels in school in Guyana to aid in developing the children’s lives.

By Shivanie Sugrim