MINISTER of Education Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, who has been widely pointing out that the current educational system, structures and practices are not sufficient to address and suppor the learning needs for a 21st century Guyana student, is now calling for greater collaboration among policy makers, educators, experts and parents, in fostering an education change.Speaking, exclusively to the Government Information Agency, Minister Roopnaraine noted that the current education system should be churning out competent Guyanese, capable of moving Guyana forward. He noted, however, that future oriented learning and teaching cannot be done by simply leaving the teachers alone to teach.
He said that parents, community and teachers have to become fully involved, and the ministry, for its part, has been seeking to provide the venues through which this collaboration for education change can occur.
One of the first things that the minister has done has been to send out a circular, via the Chief Education Officer, to all schools, advising them to re-activate their Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs) “I want a report on how active the PTAs are, because one of the things that has happened is that parents try to take an interest in children when they are very young, but by the time they get pass Grade Six, the parents essentially abandon them,” Minister Roopnaraine said.
He said that parents have to remain engaged with their children throughout the education process, and by having active PTAs; the ministry hopes to ensure the parents’ participation.
The minister has also started a series of Education Groundings, which are essentially large community meetings. “This involves meetings with communities, so that we can begin to discuss their own happenings at schools, what they feel needs to be done,” Minister Roopnaraine explained.
The ministry, as part of its focus on collaborating for education development at the higher level, reactivated the National Advisory Council on Education. Minister Roopnaraine explained that this will see the bringing together of experts who are currently in or were involved in education delivery over the years. He said that the intention is to get out of the advisory body the kind of policy directions that they believe the ministry should take in order to achieve a more progressive system.
Minister Roopnaraine has also established a Commissioner of Inquiry into Education that would go out into Georgetown and various regions and hold hearings.
From the Commission of Inquiry, the National Advisory Board, and the Community Groundings, the minister expects that he would get a body of proposals to help him refashion, remodel and improve the education system in Guyana.