– Courts (Guyana) donates $630,000

THE Government Technical Institute (GTI) on Woolford Avenue, Georgetown, launched its Open Day, yesterday, under the theme, “Transforming Technical and Vocational Education for the 21st century”, in the presence of Minister of Education Priya Manickchand. 

Coinciding with the Open Day, the vocational institute is also celebrating its 63rd anniversary as it continues to offer education and training to young people and adults in technical, commercial and scientific fields relevant to the needs of the national economy.

The general public got the opportunity to view and interact with GTI’s staff and students as they displayed and demonstrated a number of items built by them. The students also benefitted from career talks that had been scheduled and facilitators from different agencies apprised the students on what is required, and the path they should take to ensure they have a bright future.
“I am extremely pleased to be here and join with GTI to launch their Open Day. On Monday the budget was read by Honorable Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh and you would have known that the Ministry of Education and by extension our children of Guyana are getting the ‘lion’s share’ of the budget through the allocations to the ministry,” Minister Manickchand stated at the Open Day ceremony.

EIGHT CONSECUTIVE YEARS OF POSITIVE GROWTH
The Education Minister further emphasised: “This year the ministry will be receiving in excess of $30 billion to make sure we can ably prepare our next generation to lead and manage our country. It is really easy for us to say we believe in educating the nation’s children and we love Guyana and we love our children and so we believe in development and moving the country forward, but it is very hard to fulfil the pledges and promises if the circumstances are not right. Guyana today can invest in every sector because our macro-economic situation is very healthy and for the first time in a long time we have had eight consecutive years of positive growth in our country.”
Manickchand reiterated how pleased the ministry is regarding the progress of GTI as she declared the event open.
Meanwhile, Principal of GTI, Mr Carl Benn in his statement expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Education for investing heavily in the re-tooling and refurbishing of classrooms, workshops and laboratories. Benn also commended a number of private companies who have already committed themselves to work with GTI as they would have adopted workshops and laboratories, and supplied tools and equipment. He however, called on other companies to follow suit and partner with GTI in order to meet the needs of the students.
Courts (Guyana) at the open day ceremony made a monetary donation of $630,000 to GTI.
The Guyana Technical institute (GTI) began operations in May 1951 in a temporary accommodation in the Queen’s College compound. For the academic year 2013/2014, the total enrollment of students reached 1,844.

(By Rebecca Ganesh-Ally)