THE recently established hotlines by the Ministry of Education have seen members of the public highlighting various issues within the school system.
And the ministry has, so far, resolved a great number of them, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand told the media on Thursday.

Speaking in the boardroom of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), at Kingston, Georgetown, she revealed that, since the three telephone lines became operational last May 20, the ministry has recorded a total of 32 matters reported by members of the public. And, of those, 21 have been resolved up to now.
She added that the ministry’s records show that calls came from Regions 3 (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), 4 (Demerara/Mahaica), 5 (Mahaica/Berbice), 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne) and Georgetown.
Concerns which have already been dealt with include graduation fees for nursery and primary schools being more than the limit the ministry’s circular advised; registration for schools; transfers for children; school furniture being used for lessons at church and expired juice being sold at a particular school.
According to the minister, among the issues which the ministry is currently investigating is the garbage situation in some schools, rehabilitation of unsatisfactory work at a particular nursery school and security at a primary school.
She reaffirmed that her ministry values the relationship with the people served and, as such, would like to ensure that every opportunity is taken to address their concerns and take recommendations on how to improve the delivery of education in Guyana.
“We thought this was important because, even though we would craft the most beautiful policies on paper, when we go into classrooms and communities we found that they were not always being implemented the way we intended,” Manickchand emphasised.
The three Education Ministry hotline numbers are 223-7891, 623-4010 and 623-0550.