THE Ministry of Education has launched a five-year National Revised Literary Action Plan which will aid in improving the current standard of literacy countrywide.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand confirmed the Action Plan, and said that a literacy test done from grades One to Six found a 32% grade level rate.
There has been a 60% pass rate at National Grade Six Assessment, and a 50% pass with grades 1-5 at Caribbean Secondary Examination Council examinations.
The National Revised Literacy Plan is to ensure that every student is a reader by Grade Four. The minister also noted that it’s not that most of the school population is below average, but rather that they are at a grade level which needs upgrading.
Implementation of the five-year National Revised Literary Action Plan will be strategically implemented in the following areas: Mandating that all efforts are maximized; reading centres are established countryide; creating literacy awareness programmes and classes are conducted via television, radio, and social media; and starting classes to help educate parents about issues with learning difficulties.
Teachers will be able to ensure they regulate the curriculum and are delivering satisfactory results with the literacy plan, which will help improve teachers’ effectiveness to aid in a foundation level.
They would be able to implement adequate and affective material to aid in the current literacy programme via the education sector.
There would also be reading centres, libraries in schools, the implementation of local reading material to aid in gaining a proper education, proper supervision, monitoring and support from teachers; better teacher/pupil relations, which seem to be the missing link in aiding classroom development; and these all would aid in laying out the national revised literary action plan.
Business and government agencies are asked to create a literate–friendly environment to facilitate this development, thus resources would be given to parents to educate them on enhancing their children’s literate ability.
In addition, schools would be required to have an improvement plan with a literacy component, and a literacy committee would be established in every school to help with the planning of such actions.
Chief Education Officer, Mr. Olato Sam, at the launch of the National Revised Literacy Plan on Monday, said, “We should work toward this. The call today is to establish a culture that encompasses the theme “Literate by Grade 4 through consistent home, school and community involvement.”
He also noted that everyone needs to get involved if Guyana is to become fully literate, and everyone needs to encourage persons to start giving books to children instead of other items. “Encourage them that reading is fun and is important,” he said.
(By Clestine Juan)
