Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh, in his 2010 budget debate presentation on Friday, debunked the claims of People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Member Amna Ally that the Ministry lacks vision and focus. He said that Ally’s statements are elusive, an injustice to certain aspects of the Ministry.
Minister Baksh contended that the presence of an Education Strategic Plan which outlines the goals of the Ministry for a five-year period certainly gives it a vision. He further indicated that the PNC Administration was lacking vision with respect to education in Guyana since the Ministry in that era did not operate with a strategic plan.
The Minister further contended that “every five to six years we have developed and revised the Strategic Plan. This was so in 1995, 2000, and then again in 2008 and that plan tells you about the vision and the focus. The honourable member (Ally) is in the education sector and she should have read that plan because it was circulated to all the schools.”
It was also argued that the plan is of substance since it had got financial assistance from donors. The Minister emphasised it is a good plan as it enabled Guyana to get US$20.5M when it was presented to donors in Paris, to assist in the implementation of that plan especially for hinterland education.”
Supporting his argument of the potency of the plan, the Minister referred to a final report from an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) consultancy that was in Guyana in December 2009. The document stated that “the Strategic Plan 2008-2013 is comprehensive and aggressive; it provides a well articulated overview of Guyana’s system of education, its accomplishments and challenges, and it clearly articulates the vision, mission, core values and mandates of the Ministry.”
Expounding on the strategic plan to emphasise the vision of the Ministry that Ally said was missing, the Minister clearly noted some of the projections of the Ministry.
“We have very comprehensive innovative and strategic interventions for the improvement of the education sector; for example we want, in terms of CSEC subjects Grades 1 to 3 passes, we want to move from 56% to 70%. We have targets for Mathematics and English; for English we want to move from 40% to 50% and I must say that already in 2009 we have achieved 52% passes in English,” Minister Baksh argued.
The Minister also emphasised that the plan has set out for all secondary schools to have computer laboratories by 2013 and 50% of primary schools must be computerised. The Minister noted that the plan is there but there is a necessity for partnership with parents and the opposition.
Ally, without any supporting data, claimed that secondary level education is in serious trouble. Minister Baksh tossed out statistics proving the contrary.
“The highest number of candidates, showing the expanding access to secondary education in 2009, was 10,200. This is three times the number of candidates who sat CSEC under the PNC regime, with 3,800 in 1990,” Minister Baksh noted. He further argued that this exam is accessible to students in hinterland, rural and urban areas.
He also utilised statistics showcasing Guyana’s overall performance with respect to passes in five subjects and more, inclusive of Mathematics and English, as compared to other Caribbean countries, such as Jamaica with 19%, Barbados with 11%, Trinidad and Tobago with 27% and Guyana with 21% (in 2009). He noted that such performances can provide entry into universities, access to jobs and other opportunities.
Focusing on more data, the Minister argued that with respect to five and more subject passes, Guyana secured 33.9%, while Jamaica secured 24.7%, Barbados 13.2% and Trinidad and Tobago16.7%. The Minister contended that these statistics prove that secondary level education is improving.
The Minister noted that the Ministry is faced with the challenge of high migration rates of teachers at the secondary level; but Government has been focusing on the training of more teachers and there have been increasing numbers of teachers graduating from the University of Guyana.
Minister Baksh termed Ally’s accusation of the discontinuation of the Monitoring Evaluation Reporting and Development Unit (MERD) as a concoction. He argued that “MERD is alive, headed by a Deputy Chief Education Officer (Development) and going into the Regions to ensure more effectiveness of the school systems.” Minister Baksh further argued that MERD will be part of the education legislation and that it is the advisory body to the Minister.
Ally, during her presentation, lamented the absence of curriculum guides; however Minister Baksh noted that these are necessary to the Ministry’s programme and that they are in the school system and on the Ministry’s website.
He further contended that Ally as an educator should be aware that curriculum guides are not revised every year or two but over a period of 5, 10 or 15 years, unless an unexpected  need arises. He noted that in Jamaica curriculum guides are revised every 15 years.
For further argument and clarification on the topic of curriculum guides in schools, the Minister indicated that the consultancy report stated that “our work confirms that the curriculum has been modernised and that substantial teacher training has occurred. “Internal reports and survey of teachers indicated that teachers are using the new methodology’ teacher and in-service training has been institutionalised’ and a new teacher preparation programme will be streamlined and teacher training is being planned. The Ministry has utilised technology to enhance the learning experience.”
The Minister emphasised that the Ministry is in the process of reforming teacher education with a US$3M envelope from the World Bank. In addition, changes have been made to the Cyril Potter College Education (CPCE) and the Board of Governors has more members.  The Ministry will reduce time taken to acquire a degree in education as well.
“We have some consultancies in place now to design curriculum; we are going to discontinue the trained teacher’s certificate and introduce in its place an Associate degree at CPCE. We are modernising education and keeping it in line with what is taking place in CARICOM,” the Minister argued.
The Minister noted that arguments arising from Ally shun the “crash course” that was given to teachers to improve their grades. He noted that most of them were employed during the 1980s but the Government does not want to terminate their services and as such provided an alternative that will benefit them and the system.
The Minister noted that the Ministry has to train approximately 2,000 additional teachers and that has already started.
Minister Baksh acknowledged that there may be understaffing and overstaffing in the system at some given point in time, although there is a rationalisation programme in response to Ally’s accusation of the ineffectiveness of the programme. Such occurrence is more pronounced in the hinterland area because it is difficult to recruit people for those areas. However, the Ministry has developed a teacher volunteer programme to get teachers for the schools and it is focusing on expanding the programme.
The Minister indicated that information provided by Ally on money spent on the Secondary Competency Certificate Programme (SCCP) is inconsistent with the true figures. He argued that $2M out of $60M cannot be the only amount spent on the programme. The Minister declared that the amount for the programme was $50M and out of that amount only $27,000 was not spent.
The 2010 budget provides $940M for Technical Vocational Education and Training, and two technical institutes will be built, at Park, Mahaicony, and the other at Leonora.
The Minister noted that as a means of preparing students for the world of work an
d providing an alternative pathway, a certificate in Vocational and Skills Training will be issued at Grade 9. This will allow those who may drop out of school to have a certificate to acquire a job.
In addition, the Ministry will be implementing the SCCP programme in Waramadong, Region Seven, next year. Also all part-time lecturers, including those from technical institutes and CPCE will benefit from an increase in salary.
Ally, in her presentation, referred to the need for value for money and the Minster agrees that this should be so, and highlighted that it should come from operators in the school system. (GINA)