SECONDARY education has a role to play in social and economic development. It sets the foundation for young people to advance in the age of Globalization and information technology. Globalization has touched every aspect and dimension of human life and has already begun to change the way we visualize the role of secondary education in developing countries. It is evidential that developing countries are paying too much emphasis on primary education which results in an increase in number of school leavers at the primary level and creating a greater demand for the access to and the availability of secondary education. The World Bank online report on Education indicated that the role of and the changes in secondary education have to be revised in the context of globalization and competitiveness in the information age, rapid transformations in technology and labor markets. This should be a signal to developing countries to focus more on the development of secondary education and higher education by revising their curriculum and administrative function to better suit the changing global environment.
The increased access to and provision of secondary education to Guyana’s population especially to the poor, the indigenous people and to rural communities are vital for their development. Recent research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) has linked increasing access to secondary education with economic growth. With respect to Guyana, World Bank 2009-2012 Guyana report indicated a strong disparity between rural and urban areas and this disparity can be reduced through pursuance and completion of secondary education by those living in rural areas because this level of education as an instrument for mobilization, integration and enhancement of human capital, caters for a competitive and production workforce at a national level.
A Proposal for Improving Access to Secondary Education through Innovative Self Study Access Systems Philip Richards, January to March 2011 put forward that Poverty reduction has direct links with access to secondary education. The World Bank 2009-2012 Guyana report stated that the Amerindians compared to Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese and the mixed population, experience the highest poverty incidence in the country and secondary education has been one of the reasons for the reduction in the poverty rates. The greater access to secondary education, the greater one’s life chances will be with respect to the formal sector employment and informal sector employment.  A person with complete secondary education can earn 20 percent higher than a person with an incomplete secondary allowing for an improved livelihood and serving as an incentive for increased productivity.

In Guyana, secondary education starts after the completion of primary education. This level of education is offered in the secondary department of primary schools, discrete community high schools and general secondary schools. The number general secondary schools by education district recorded by the Digest of Education Statistics of Guyana, 2007-2008 include 2 in Region 1; 5 in Region 2; 9 in Region 3; 32 in Region 4; 6 in Region 5; 16 in Region 6; 2 in Region 7; 2 in Region 8; 3 in Region 9 and 5 in Region 10. In year 2007 – 2008, the majority of the students accounting for 70% were attending general secondary school in all ten regions. The total number of students enrolled in general secondary school from all the regions was to 47, 826.

Currently, investments are increasing for the construction of more secondary schools as well in Regions 1, 7, 8 and 9. There have been continued efforts by Guyana Government to seek to improve literacy and numeracy and vocational and technical education through improving teachers’ education. The proportion of trained teachers is expected to increase from 57 percent to 70 percent by 2012 and the knowledge of the teachers is also expected to be upgraded in their specialized areas at the secondary level (World Bank 2009-2012 Guyana report).