Let’s develop Guyana together
…‘We can’t agree on everything, we must be reasonable in our demands’
GOVERNING People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member of Parliament and Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, has called on the Opposition to join with the government in working together to take the country forward. She was speaking yesterday as the budget 2012 debate continued in the National Assembly, lending her support to the $192.8 billion budget presented two weeks ago by Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, under the theme, ‘Remaining on Course, United in Purpose, Prosperity for All’.
But Minister Manickchand’s presentation did not come without disruption. During her presentation, Speaker Raphael Trotman had to intervene  several times as he asked members of the House, particularly the main Opposition, to cease disrupting and allow their fellow MP to proceed.
Eventually the Speaker, peeved by the behaviour of members, briefly suspended the sitting for a few minutes. The Chief Whips of the two sides of the House were then summoned by the Speaker, and when the proceedings resumed, he warned that “I will not continue in an atmosphere like that”, and he said both Chief Whips had pledged their continued cooperation and support.
In her presentation, Manickchand accepted that both sides of the House did not have to agree on everything. However, she noted, “We must be reasonable in our assertions, we must be reasonable in our demands, we must be reasonable in our presentations”.
She said the presentations must be attended  by reasonableness, noting, “Coming here and proclaiming that nothing has been done by the PPP, coming here and saying there is nothing in this budget for anyone, coming here and saying there is no improvement under this government is as unreasonable as if we on this side came to say we have done it all and there is nothing left to do”.
Alluding to Opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) MP Dr. Rupert Roopnarine calling for a new political epoch and seeing this new dispensation as an opportunity to nurture a new political culture, adding, “…and then even more ironically, saying that they are prepared on this side of the House to meet the new challenges and rise to the occasion.
“…but we have had repeated experiences, Mr. Speaker, where our outstretched hands, our offer to work together have been slapped away,” she pointed out and proceeded to give examples of such scenarios.
The minister also called on the House to recognise the contributions of the former Minister of Education Shaik Baksh to the sector, and thanked him on behalf of the people of Guyana for his service.
“Education in any part of this world is important; it is perhaps the most important sector that any country is going to have to deal with. We are vibrantly aware in the Ministry of Education that what we do now will determine what our country looks like in the future,” she assured.
Recognising the challenges, she said, “We in the Ministry of Education are doing tangible things that will give us answers to some of the problems that we have…in fact, we have many problems but we have to sit down and discuss a way forward for those problems.”
She said that today children all across the country are doing well in terms of education and they must continue this trend of continuous expenditure and attention to the education sector, as such, this year, the government is dedicating more than 13 percent of its national budget to this sector.
Manickchand posited that this continued “expression of love for our children through this sector has seen us achieving the Millennium Goal of universal primary education.
She said they have a plan which is about to be presented and implemented, whereby “we are going to pledge to the nation that within the next five years we in Guyana will achieve Universal Secondary Education”.
In addition to the number of schools across the country, she said there are  22 dormitories benefiting more than 2,000 children, as compared to before, when those children would have been without access to that education”.
She said in 2011, more than 12,700 children were writing the CXC and 70, 781 subject entries, insisting, “That is the effect of equitably distributing a service and investing in the education sector”.
The minister also revealed that there are 70 percent trained teachers in the system and it is hoped that by 2016, all the teachers in the system can be trained. She noted that the ratio now is one teacher to 35 students in secondary schools, and in the remediation programme, it is one teacher to 25 students.
She said the PPP/C administration recognises that teachers are the backbone of the education system, and as such, 10 teachers’ training centres have been established across the country.
“I believe it is because of this attention that we have seen 63 percent of our teachers in the nursery system being trained, and 67 percent of our primary school teachers being trained, with the hinterland moving from 38 percent to 43 percent, and we have seen the secondary sector moving from 59 percent of trained teachers in 2007/2008, to 63 percent of trained teachers in 2009/2010,” she outlined.
She said last week, she meet with teachers who are delegates of the Guyana Teachers Union and heard their concerns.
“And I also heard their deep commitment to the development of this nation and I am confident that with the teachers we have in the system, we are going to take that extra leap forward year by year, until Guyana is developed to the place where we can all be proud, to the place where we can all say we have arrived,” she said.
The minister also asked the House to join her ministry in denouncing violence against teachers, alluding to two incidents of teachers being beaten by guardians and parents.
Touching on the issue of poor results in Mathematics and English, she said they are going to continue strategically employing strategies, and noted that Guyana is not alone in this regard, with other Caribbean countries facing the same problem.
She said last year, the ministry came up with a partnership approach with government, students, parents, teachers, and volunteers to help monitor this.
She also defended the Guyana Learning Channel which started in April 2011, disclosing that 2,641 programmes were broadcast, targeting learning skills such as problem solving, collaborative learning, language skills and different levels of reading proficiency, with over 60 local programmes produced, and they want to take it to a different stage with innovative and visionary methods to take the education system forward.
Manickchand said their vision for this year includes continuing along the track to attain universal secondary education and will be focusing on science.
Additionally, they are going to be focusing on how they can provide better programmes for children with disabilities, Manickchand added.
She insisted that the education system now, for over two decades, is the best that it has ever been, noting, “We are not where we want to be. It is a work in progress that we dedicate ourselves to every single day.
“And we welcome not only the Opposition members, but also all the citizens of this dear land to work along with us to take us to the place where we could all celebrate a Guyana, where we are doing better in our homes individually, and we are doing better across the nation in every single sector,” she encouraged.