–    Goolsarran
THE National Centre of Educational Resource Development (NCERD) is  not bridging gaps in education but rather ensuring there are none, its Director, Mr. Mohandatt Goolsarran said yesterday, at the start of Education Month. “We are working to ensure that there is a smooth flow of resources in the schools, as well as a good system of assessing and monitoring, which is how we get feedback on how effective it is,” he told the Guyana Chronicle in an interview.
“As we see the need we are trying to position ourselves to respond positively,” Goolsarran said, adding that it is done through guided interventions.
However, he remarked that, as with most undertakings, challenges are inherent and the primary difficulties facing NCERD are constraints, in terms of human, material and financial resources.
“At present, we are operating at maximum level. We have to do the best we can with the resources,” Goolsarran said.
He said there is a demand for the services NCERD provides through training programmes it facilitates.
Goolsarran reported that a recent teacher training initiative attracted 500 applications for the course that could only accommodate 100, causing the stint to be extended to December, during school break, so that classes would not be disrupted.
In that context, he said capacity needs to be expanded physically, in terms of infrastructure and as it relates to human resources.
“We need to expand our capacity to deal with some of the services we contract out, which include processing of exams, so we reduce the time that the results take to be released,” Goolsarran emphasised.
He admitted, though, that attracting qualified and experienced personnel is a problem.
APPRECIATION
Goolsarran expressed his appreciation for overseas-based Guyanese who return and volunteer their services for three or four days and said many of them want to remigrate and serve but expect to do so under the same conditions that obtain in North America.
“We simply cannot afford it,” he agreed.
According to him, the way to address the lack of human resources is to have people in the system rise to the challenge of continuous professional development.
“We need people with vision, self-motivation and an understanding of education at all levels,” he said.
Goolsarran observed that the individuals associated with NCERD are people who address the advancement of the education sector at a national level and must be able to function there.
He said NCERD is spreading its wings and is expanding the services it provides to sector stakeholders. As such it is also looking to enlarge its physical space.
NCERD’s mission is to plan and implement all in-service teacher education programmes, in order to improve the quality at all levels so it can serve as an effective instrument of social and economic development.
The theme for Education Month 2010 is ‘Child-Friendly Homes: Child-Friendly Classrooms – Quality Education’ and Goolsarran said NCERD’s effectiveness can be measured by its output, which, by all accounts, has contributed to visible improvements in the sector.