DURING remarks at a Ministry of Education press conference held at the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD) in Kingston, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand announced that the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) would be offering Portuguese at the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) examinations which are being written in nine territories for the first time in 2016.

The minister explained that the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) would offer Portuguese as a subject at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) in 2017.

“You may recall that it was Guyana’s Ministry of Education that piloted Portuguese formally in the secondary school’s curriculum. It was here that we developed the Curriculum Guides, resource materials, and trained our teachers to deliver this new but increasingly useful language,” Manickchand explained.

In May 2014, under the theme “Eliminating literacy, modernising education and strengthening tolerance”, the Ministry of Education intensified its efforts to have Portuguese taught in all schools across the country. The Ministry aims to further develop the capacity of modern languages’ teachers within the education system. Deputy Chief Education Officer (Development), Ms. Doodmattie Singh explained the pioneering work done by the Ministry to establish Portuguese as a new modern language on the national curriculum, when it initially launched the Portuguese curriculum in six schools in 2013.
Ms. Singh pointed out that an additional 15 schools will now offer Portuguese when the new school year begins in September 2014. The six schools that initially formed part of the launch of Portuguese in Guyana were Queen’s College, The Bishops’ High, Saint Stanislaus College, Saint Roses High, Saint Joseph High and North Georgetown Secondary. The additional 15 schools earmarked to carry Portuguese in 2014 were: Georgetown – Brickdam Secondary, Christ Church Secondary and Central High; Region 3 – Zeeburg Secondary and West Demerara Secondary; Region 4 – Hope Secondary, Annandale Secondary, President’s College and Diamond Secondary; Region 5 – Rosignol Secondary and Bygeval Secondary; Region 8 – Mahdia Secondary; Region 9 – St Ignatius Secondary, and Region 10 – Mackenzie High.

Minister Manickchand emphasised that the launch of this programme is in keeping with the commitment made by the ruling PPP/C Government during its 2011 election campaign, in which its manifesto unquestionably stated that, within the next five years, it would work at “strengthening foreign language teaching, both in the school system, including at the primary school level, and for the public at large, with special emphasis (being placed) on Spanish and Portuguese, reflecting our country’s continental prospects.

The minister said: “This morning, we are fulfilling a part of that promise by preparing ourselves to introduce Portuguese all across this country.”
A team led by Manickchand has had several meetings with the relevant authorities of CXC over the last year, and has made proposals for Portuguese to be included formally as a subject that is offered at the CXC level.

“We are extremely pleased to say our efforts bore fruit, and we are grateful to all the territories who supported our application and proposals to CXC”, Manickchand said.