INCOMING Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand on Monday met with the Ministry of Education’s Management of Information Systems Unit (MISU) to brainstorm a novel approach to education delivery.
In a nutshell, the purpose of the meeting was to essentially come up with strategies to effectively and efficiently deliver education virtually in light of the current COVID-19 situation.
Among those in attendance were: MISU Head, Mr. Indar Singh; Systems Development Coordinator, Mr. Godfrey Munroe; Chief Planning Officer (CPO), Ms. Nicola Johnson; Assistant Chief Education Officer (Nursery), Ms. Samantha Williams; Systems Development Coordinator, Mr. Imran Mohamed; and Director of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Ms. Jennifer Cumberbatch.
Notably, ever since Guyana recorded its first case of the coronavirus on March 11, 2020 the MOE, under the previous administration, took a decision to close schools, effective March 16, to help slow the spread of the virus. Similar closures and other measures were also effected all across the Caribbean and other parts of the world, and in its attempt to mitigate the pressure those measures were putting on the delivery of education, the MoE has been providing interactive learning via television, the Learning Channel; on radio; and on its website.
Here in Guyana, the closing of schools was effective until April 3, which marked the end of the Easter school term, leading straight into the two-week Easter vacation. As such, students and teachers were expected to return to school for scheduled reopening on April 20.
However, over that period of time , the COVID-19 situation in Guyana and the rest of the world had escalated significantly, resulting in even more stringent measures being implemented, requiring persons to remain at home as much and as long as is practicable.
