EDUCATION Minister Shaik Baksh has appealed to English and Mathematics teachers whose attendance at the University of Guyana (UG) affect their delivery in the classroom to give at least two hours of their time after school or on Saturdays to recover lost work.
Addressing scores of these teachers at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), he explained that the goal of his ministry is to have more trained graduate teachers in the school system to improve quality education delivery in the classroom, but this must not be done at the expense of the students.
Baksh contended that compliance from teachers will enable his ministry to get more value for money while at the same time avoiding the situation where students will be robbed of the opportunity to realize their full potential.
The minister pointed out that his ministry has instituted numerous interventions to improve students’ performance in these two subject areas, and can ill-afford to not have teachers delivering adequately in these disciplines.
He noted that a strong remedial programme has been introduced at the secondary level, targeting weak students in English and Mathematics with the aim of positioning them on the path to perform competently at Grade 10 and to be better able to succeed at the CSEC examinations.
The Ministry of Education has also undertaken to have all schools and possibly all Grade 11 students equipped with DVDs of English and Mathematics lessons to supplement the work done in the classroom. Schools are also being flooded with textbooks, including the provision of CSEC self-study materials in these two subjects.
Teachers are also being upgraded through the non-graduate certificate programmes in English and Mathematics which are part of a recently launched series of continuous professional development programmes.
Minister Baksh stressed too that a team of English and Mathematics specialists has been assembled at NCERD to assist teachers of the poor performing schools in an effort to better students’ performance at next year’s examinations.
Though Guyana recorded an improvement in students’ performance in English and Mathematics at the last CSEC examinations, the results in these two subjects were still below that of the other CARICOM states.
He praised the performance of teachers who played an instrumental role to improve the performance of students at the last CSEC examinations and underlined that with the interventions now in the school system, the intention is make Guyana second to no Caribbean territory at the CSEC examinations.
He stressed that more graduate teachers in Mathematics and English are needed in the school system and his ministry fully supports these teachers in their quest to further their education; but he noted that they must recognize too their responsibility to their students and the efforts being made to improve students’ performance.
The minister disclosed that his ministry is hoping to finalize timetable adjustments with the university to have classes for the education programmes offered by the Faculty of Education and Humanities held after 15:00 hours at the commencement of the second semester. This will avoid teachers leaving school during the instructional period.
He also said that a task team will be set up to work with the university to devise similar adjustments for teachers in the other faculties at the university.
This programme will be of significant benefit to teachers as they would no longer have to obtain a release from the Ministry of Education to attend UG and have to wait for at least two years after they have completed training at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) to attend that institution of higher learning.
The three year Trained Teachers’ Certificate in Education programme at CPCE has also been replaced with a two year Associate Degree in Education (ADE) programme which synchronizes with the ministry’s goal to have at least 70 per cent of trained teachers in the system by 2013.
Teachers who successfully complete the ADE will have to spend only two years at UG to obtain their Bachelors’ Degree in Education, unlike under the previous system where they had to spend four years.