AS part of Guyana’s 52nd Independence Anniversary celebrations, secondary school students across the country are being given a special tour of the National Archives to learn more about the country’s history.

Under the theme: ‘New Frontier of Nationhood’, the students are being exposed to photographs, sculptures, artifacts, paintings, music and other material which depict Guyana’s rich past, diversity and growth over time.

Much of the information focused on the country’s past presidents; past independence celebrations and pre-independence events. Schools visiting the archives on Tuesday included the West Demerara Secondary, Annandale Secondary, Berbice High School and others from Linden while four other schools visited on Monday.

Archivist, Nadia Gamel-Carter, explained that one of the organisation’s aim this year is to invite schools from far-out communities which may not be readily able to have the experience.

She said that in light of the upcoming independence celebrations, many of the items on display are geared towards providing information on events leading up to and following the country’s liberation from British rule.
“We’re highlighting key personalities and it’s old to us but it is always new to them (youths). So this is the season, and while we’ll have the flag-raising and the fireworks, we try to get (to students) this historic information.

“We do it in an exhibition format because we can distil it and it’s more palatable to them. We’ve printed a lot of brochures and other information that they can take back to the schools,” Gamel-Carter said.

Other items on display include old maps of Guyana’s borders which stimulated discussions on the county’s current border conflict with neighbouring Venezuela.
To assist the process, the Department of Public Information (DPI) provided interactive presentations through pamphlets, books, photographs and video clips.

Speaking with a student of the Berbice High School, Raquel Meenkum, she said: “We learnt to appreciate history for what it is and know that we’ll fight for it and know that we’re strong Guyanese people of six races and we can do anything.”

Meanwhile, student of West Demerara Secondary, Leanna Singh, said: “What really stood out to me were the newspapers. It was very old and it was from the 1870s to the 1940s and it was quite interesting. Apart from that, the history itself, it was fascinating.”
The exhibitions will conclude on June 8 and are being hosted from 09:00hrs to 15:00hrs at the National Archives on Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown.