… priority will be afforded for their professional development -CEO

AS the Guyanese students continue to produce outstanding performances at the regional examinations, the efforts of teachers who “defy the odds” have been recognised and Chief Education Officer, Dr. Marcel Hutson says priority will be given to teachers to enhance their abilities.

”We believe that this noble group must be vested with desire to contribute to creating visions for teaching, learning and systemic thinking,” Hutson said , adding that priority will be given for them to make “continuous professional development.”

Hutson was addressing gathering , which included Minister of Education , Dr. Nicolette Henry, at the National Centre for Education and Research Development (NCERD) where the this years’ results of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) were announced by the Education Ministry.

According to Hutson, teachers’ educators are strategically positioned to serve as catalysts for the change in education delivery the ministry pursues. He said the ministry will concentrate on producing great teachers. “I believe this is the essence of where we will go,” he said.

He said the results being recorded in recent years at regional and national examinations “are not due to magic” but rather as a result of hard work by a group of persons who toil day and night as they commit to the transformation of the education sector.
To this end, Hutson extended gratitude to teachers who defy the odds and produce students of quality and substance.

“We honor you,” he said of the teachers as he also recognised the contributions of education officers and other officials in the system.
He said that a team effort is needed for the future of the nation’s children to realise their potential.

According to the top education official, this year’s results testify to the “enormous benefits that can be had” if all stakeholders embrace an approach of collaboration and cooperation.
“The results point to signs of hope,” he said, as he noted that education is on a developmental trajectory.

“We are in a good place and we must never sway from the cooperation and collaboration that has brought us this far for the sake of the development of our young people,” he said.
This year, Guyana recorded improved performances in 21 subject areas with standout grades in 13 subject areas at the CSEC examinations.

The education minister deemed Guyana’s performance the best ever. At the same time, there was an increase in Grades One and Two passes recorded for Guyanese students who sat the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) as the overall performances were deemed satisfactory. This year, a total of 11,467 candidates wrote the CSEC regional examinations.

On Wednesday, during her announcement of the 2019 results of the two regional examinations set by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), for the CSEC subjects, Minister Henry noted improved performances were recorded in several subject areas including the sciences, English A, the business subjects and the modern languages.
In terms of the performances at the CAPE examination, candidates obtained 100 per cent pass rates in 31 units including Agricultural Science Unit Two, Environmental Science Unit One, Sociology Unit One and Physics Unit Two among others.

A total of 880 Guyanese students wrote the CAPE examinations and Minister Henry said that this year, Mathematics remained consistent with 83.85 per cent grades one to five passes. Of note, was the performance of students from the Christianburg/Wismar Secondary School which offered four units for CAPE for the first time with a pass rate of 92 per cent.