EDUCATION Minister Priya Manickchand has made it clear that breaches of the transfer rules for secondary students will result in the offending education officers being dismissed.

“Whoever breaches the rules will go home, publicly,” she said, responding to the question of transfers for secondary students to schools without having the requisite entry marks.
The Minister, who addressed the issue at a stakeholder consultation on Saturday, which was held at the National Centre for Education and Resource Development (NCERD), added that the only kinds of transfers that will be accommodated will be parallel transfers.

‘No student will be placed at a school without having the requisite marks’

She explained that if a student requires a transfer from one school to another school with a similar entry mark requirement it will be accommodated.
“You have to make the cut off score before you can enter a particular school…I am not very popular because people come to me and say their child lost one mark for a particular school but that doesn’t mean they are admitted to the school they request if they don’t have the score,” Manickchand said.
The Education Minister was emphatic in pointing out that if a child has been transferred with marks lower than the required entry mark to the school he or she has been transferred to, the responsible official will be sanctioned.

NO FREE-FOR-ALL
According to her, there is no free-for-all going on with the system and acknowledged that there were three instances where infractions were detected and these were dealt with accordingly.
“No student will be placed at a school without having the requisite marks,” she reiterated.
Manickchand referred to a clear example of the Ministry’s policy, citing the case of the public-spirited citizen who offered his premises to be used to house students after L’Aventure Secondary School burnt down.
“His daughter missed the school she wanted by one mark, and if I said “No” to him, who is doing us a huge service by offering us space for our students, I can say “No” to anyone else; this is our policy,” she said.
The Minister pointed out too that headteachers have also been warned to ensure that the Ministry’s policy is enforced.
The National Grade Six Assessment Examination is Guyana’s secondary school placement examination and the marks attained at these exams determine the schools.

(By Vanessa Narine)