MINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, yesterday, announced the resuscitation of the Guyana National Museum’s Mobile and School Loan Programme.
At the same time, he handed over, to the Museum at Company Path in Georgetown, a minibus which will be used to aid its delivery.

In his remarks on the occasion, the minister noted that the restart of the project is something that has been in the works for quite some time, at the level of the ministry, which has been collecting artifacts.
“We’ve created a large pool of such cases that can be used as educational material and we have some specifically with animals and we have some relating to the history of our country,” he reported.
Further, he stated that the ministry thought, by getting these cases out to various schools, teachers can incorporate the material as part of their teaching aids in both Science and Social studies.
Anthony admitted that one of the constraining factors had been the difficulty for individual schools to pick up the cases, take them to the schools and then return them.
He made reference to a pilot scheme undertaken sometime ago with a school in Linden, which was facilitated by the LINMINE Secretariat, which would normally pick up the exhibits, return them and then collect another.
According to him, the ministry saw the benefits of this and, therefore, in last year’s budget, they were able to acquire a vehicle that would be used, by the museum, to transport the cases, instead of schools having to go there and make the pick-up.

Agreement
He encouraged the schools which are interested to notify the ministry and sign an agreement with museum authorities.
Anthony emphasised that, when these cases are collected, they must be displayed in classrooms where the teachers would make sure they are protected.
The minister also admonished the teachers who will be partnering with the ministry and the museum to create little clubs in their schools, which would get interested children to participate in exercises such as the workshops which the museum would conduct.
Anthony said the ministry is extremely pleased that it is at the point where it can formally take exhibits out to the schools and he commended all the persons who were involved in this initiative.
Also speaking on the occasion, Director of the Guyana National Museum, Mr. Elford Liverpool said they have adopted the mobile programme to enhance it in the school system.
He said it was initially implemented on June 14, 1956 and patterned from an outline of work done by schoolchildren from the Chicago Museum of Natural History.
Liverpool stated that the mobile unit will serve as the primary means of transport to enhance the delivery and the efficiency of this programme that would also help the museum access communities in remote locations across all ten Administrative Regions of the country.
It is aimed at impacting at least 50 schools in this resuscitation stage, he said, expressing gratitude to the Government of Guyana, on behalf of the museum, for the acquisition of the vehicle that would aid in the enhancement of the efficiency of the school system.
On behalf of the Ministry of Education, Deputy Chief Education Officer, Ms. Donna Chapman assured that the programme will enhance the delivery of the curriculum, especially in the areas of Social Studies and Science.

Meaningful
She confessed that many of the children have never visited the museum, so this will certainly make teaching more interesting and lively, as well as render the history of the country more meaningful and realistic for many of them.
Chapman said teachers will also be very grateful, because they would have ready access to teaching materials, for which they would not have to search.
She, too, expressed gratitude for the gesture and said the ministry believes this will enhance and strengthen the relationship that it has with the museum.
She congratulated those involved in the initiative which she deemed an extremely good one.
Under the Museum’s Schools Loan Programme, introduced in 1956, the historic cases were distributed among some 104 schools and, initially, loaned for three weeks. These travelling cases were then rotated with the other schools as part of the continuing education programmes.