Baksh repeats call…
EDUCATION Minister, Shaik Baksh, has repeated his call to all sector stakeholders, particularly parents, to increase their
involvement and strengthen commitment to working with his ministry to ensure the success of the nation’s children. In a recent charge to headteachers, at the commencement of the new academic term, he said teachers from all schools are now
mandated to meet, consistently, with parents to discuss their children’s progress and, collectively, plan for overall improvements.
A press release said Mr. Baksh told the school heads: “We have also worked, assiduously, to ensure that Parent Teachers
Associations are structured and operating effectively in most, if not all schools across the country. We hope that these efforts will
be expanded and our schools will become true community schools.”
The release said, recently, a report, published by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that Guyana has made
significant strides in making schools child-friendly.
Baksh emphasised the need to improve this achievement in 2011, so that all schools become welcoming, clean and safe
environments for children and teachers.
He said the increase in the number of students writing the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations is
highly encouraging and speaks to progress in reducing dropouts and providing viable options for students at the secondary level.
Baksh remarked that the pass rates in Mathematics and English have improved and the Ministry, satisfied with the levels, has
implemented various strategies aimed at raising those scores, an approach which has gained the full support of all secondary school
headteachers.
In addition, significant resources continue to be channelled into the secondary alternative pathways through the SCCP
programme, which has expanded over the past year. The aim of the programme is in keeping with the Ministry’s goal to ensure that
every student leaves school with some basic levels of competency in the core subject areas, he said.
Foundation
Baksh said, critical to attaining this goal, is the foundation set for pupils at the pre-primary level.
“It is important that enrollment continues to increase, so that more of our children can be guaranteed a solid foundation on
which to build their educational futures,” he pointed out.
Baksh said a range of initiatives have been introduced to improve performance at the primary level, notable among them are the
continuous assessment programme, the new literacy methodology which includes the literacy hour and accelerated literacy instruction
periods, the Interactive Radio Instruction programme, the Fast-Track Literacy Programme and the National Grade Six Assessment.
He said all are, presently, being evaluated to strengthen areas of weakness and ensure pupils are literate and numerate by the
time they complete the primary cycle. The Literacy Certification Assessment in grade four has also been introduced and will be
conducted in June for the first time.
“We have gone beyond this to ensure our students are given support in basic areas of need. From reports received from every
Regional Education Department, the introduction of the National School Feeding Programme has had a significant impact on students’
attendance and attention levels. We have also been highly encouraged with the overwhelming response to the distribution of school
uniforms and textbooks across the country. We now provide support for students writing CSEC with compact discs and study materials in
English and Mathematics and our newly established Multimedia Centre along with the Educational Television Channel will go a long way
in supporting classroom instruction with a range of supplemental resources,” Baksh stated.
He observed that, in all of this, teachers have the most critical role to play and his ministry remains committed to supporting
their efforts to improve performance standards.
“We have assigned literacy coordinators to every region and continue to train teachers and provide instructional support in
this critical area. In addition, we have developed the competency framework for teachers in the area of Information Technology, which
will support the infusion of technology in classroom delivery strategies. We are on track in our efforts to equip our primary and
secondary schools with functional IT laboratories and have acquired a range of supporting educational software to this end,” the
release said Baksh informed.