… at School Attendance Award presentation
West Ruimveldt Primary and St. Stanislaus Secondary schools yesterday walked away as Georgetown champions when the School Welfare Department hosted its annual School Attendance Award presentation at the National Gymnasium.
West Ruimveldt also won the top prize for primary schools last year. This time around, with St. Stanislaus College, they managed to squeeze past their rivals in a keenly contested competition that featured 36 schools in Georgetown vying for the crown in the primary and secondary categories.
Some 1000 students who had 98 per cent and higher attendance during the last school year were also honoured.
According to a release from the Ministry of Education, Assistant Chief Education Officer (Nursery) Doodmattie Singh, addressing hundreds of students from the Georgetown District accompanied by their teachers, underscored the importance of regular attendance and punctuality, pointing out that it guarantees comprehensive coverage of the curriculum.
On the other hand, she noted that students who were regularly absent from school are affected in several ways, including the failure to grasp key concepts of the respective disciplines which can negatively affect their performance.
She urged the gathering of students to pressure their colleagues to attend school regularly and on that note, underlined that there are many child-friendly schools with trained teachers who are always ready to be at their aid today more than any time before.
Every child, Singh said, must attend school every day, and she challenged the schools in Georgetown to double the number of awardees at next year’s presentation.
Principal Education Officer (Georgetown) Marcel Hutson stressed that the forum is an ideal way to honour the schools with high attendance in the city as it will motivate other schools to improve their attendance.
Hutson told the gathering that attendance helps students to correctly follow instructions from their teachers and to socialize, and is directly linked to students outcome in the classroom.
He noted that as part of Education Month activities, the nation’s top teachers will also be honoured.
Hutson called too on all stakeholders to partner with the Ministry of Education to build a better school system.
“Together we can achieve the extraordinary. Education is the backbone of society and our aim is to move forward,” he said.
The issue of students’ attendance in Guyana dates back to 1877, when the Ordinance to enforce Elementary Education in then British Guiana was enacted.
In that Ordinance, the District Education Officer had the duty to ensure that all school aged children attend school and to report to the Secretary of the Board of Education parents who fail to allow their children to receive an education.
During the 1940s, those duties were given to the Attendance Officers who were later renamed School’s Welfare Officers in 1966.
Throughout the 19th century, the main aim in the education system was regular attendance, and attendance certificates were given to students with high attendance as a means of encouraging them to continue attending school regularly and to motivate others to do the same.
At that time too, Gold certificates were presented to students with over 95 per cent attendance for the academic year, and Black certificates to those students whose attendance was between 90 to 95 per cent.