EDUCATION Minister Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, convinced that the education system is “creaking” and is on “life support”, has recently issued a directive to carry out audits in schools countrywide.Since assuming office, Dr. Roopnaraine has been on a quest to address the issues faced by the education system, the most pressing of which, according to the minister, are the lack of quality educators and equity in the school systems, specifically between the coastland and hinterland schools; value-for-money audits, and more focus needing to be placed on the enhancement of teachers in schools.

He has therefore sent audit teams to schools in every region to assess their current situation and gain information on issues that plague them. The teams have also been tasked with conducting environmental audits of the schools.

Thus far, all schools have been audited, with the exception of two schools on the coastland. The results of the audits have confirmed the Minister’s conviction that the system is indeed “creaking” and is on “life support”.

“They (the reports) have come in and I have looked at them, and it is what I expected. The system is creaking, and a lot of it is on life support,” declared Dr. Roopnaraine.

This substantiated conviction has been communicated to the media when he was recently questioned on the progress of the audits of schools.

In relation to “creaking,” Dr. Roopnaraine said the system needs reinvigorating and renewing in a lot of ways. The sector, he said, is in a “pre-crisis” stage. Additionally, he pointed out that most of the problems are regional.
These issues, said the Minister, stem from “outmoded” methods that belong to a previous era.

Therefore, he said, to tackle these issues, the system needs to be equipped with new technologies for Guyana to see an actual revolution in terms of education delivery.
A Commission of Inquiry (CoI) has been set up by the Education Ministry to bring it up-to-date with the state of the current education system. The CoI will seek to determine what is lacking, and recommend measures that could be implemented to improve the education sector countrywide.

The audits will feed into the CoI so that the commission would be in a position to provide directives on how to solve some of the difficulties faced by the schools.

The CoI would involve teachers, education officials, citizens from across the country, and experts in various fields.

With the steady talk of bridging the equality and quality gap between the students on the coastland and those in the hinterland, the CoI is expected to deliver as promised, given that the audits have been completed in the regions.

Dr. Roopnaraine holds a firm view that education is a big challenge in the 21st century. The Ministry of Education is nevertheless committed to combatting that plague the sector.

By Shivanie Sugrim