In Parliament…
MINISTER of Education, Mr. Shaik Baksh has denied more than 300 persons, who successfully completed the teachers’ upgrading programme, were denied entry to Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE).

Refuting the claim in the National Assembly, where he was grilled last week Monday, he said 33 teachers who underwent the upgrade and applied for admission to the CPCE pre-service course were admitted in September 2008.

“Those teachers who applied for the in-service programme are currently being processed for admission in July 2009, the regular commencement date. It should be noted that the upgrading examination was held at the end of August 2008,” Baksh informed the House.

He was replying to questions by members of the opposition People’s National Congress Reform-One Guyana (PNCR- IG) when he also rejected claims that applicants for the pre-service were told they could not be admitted because of lack of furniture and lecturers.

Baksh said, of 60 who applied, 33 succeeded, after being sent letters stating that they were successful at the upgrading and will now have to apply for admission.

Many of them asked for a deferral of one year, explaining that they could not attend this but next year, he stated.

In response to queries about the stopped feeding at schools in Georgetown and on the coastland, Baksh said: “The milk and biscuits school feeding programme was affected by the cessation of supplies of non-fat milk by Food for the Poor and was discontinued to enable the Ministry of Education to review it and access various options for its continuation, having regard to the cost of running such a programme.”

As to whether the Government has any intention of financing the milk supply in schools, he said that is under active consideration.

Baksh said, too, that different options are being looked at as substitutes and he is hoping the decision can be reflected in the 2009 Budget.

“For a school feeding programme to cover all the nursery and primary schoolchildren in this country, with full cream milk and biscuits, it will cost in excess of $1 billion,” he indicated.