THE soon-to-be created Department of Education within the Ministry of the Presidency is one of the recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the education system here, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, said.
The department will oversee the implementation of innovations and reforms in the education system.
That department, Harmon said, would remove the major burden from Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry, who is temporarily holding the post following the reassigning of Dr Rupert Roopnaraine to the Ministry of Public Service.
Henry was initially appointed Minister within the Ministry of Education, with responsibility for Youth, Sport and Culture.
Harmon explained that the new department “takes away responsibility for driving reforms and puts it under the handling of a technical set of persons who are being identified for that purpose. So that the functions of the office of the Minister of Education would have been removed and dealt with by a special set of persons”.
Last year, following the release of the National Grande Six Assessment results, government said there exists a serious problem in English and Mathematics which require urgent and immediate intervention.
As such, $144M was expended as part of an emergency intervention.
“We trust the results of these new examinations will bear fruit,” said Harmon, who noted that it was realised that the emergency intervention was not enough.
“We needed to go a little further. So, basically, what you will see is some further innovation and reforms that will deal with those particular issues,” the Minister of State noted.
Meanwhile, when questioned about the suitability of Henry to hold Dr Roopnaraine’s post, Harmon said the President has expressed confidence in the minister to perform in the capacity she has been asked to perform.
“Minister Henry is performing the functions of the Minister of Education and that is the function she would perform, until such time that the President in his deliberate judgment, considers there is some other arrangement that needs to be put in place,” the Minister of State said.