Wider access to education? Yes, please!

THE Anna Regina Secondary School in Region Two (Pomeroon- Supenaam) and the West Demerara Secondary School in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) have now started to offer the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), a tertiary- level examination. And I believe that these are important steps in increasing access to education.

Certainly, calls for increasing children’s access to education will always find a place in this column, simply because it is one of the national goals closest to my heart. And clearly, this is not an unachievable goal.

I am happy about this development, but now that we have achieved this feat, there are several crucial areas on which we need to continue focusing. For example, establishing the CAPE centre in Region Two is important because it affords greater access to tertiary education for students there. What is equally important in this same situation, is the availability of trained teachers to give those students the same quality of education they would have expected had they come to one of the top schools in Georgetown (or the top schools + lessons, but that’s a discussion for another column).

The need for trained teachers throughout the education sector is a longstanding matter that has been well ventilated. And it comes as no surprise to me that the local authorities are currently pushing for more and more trained teachers, at least in the public education system.

However, I think it is essential to highlight that the outlying regions such as the hinterland regions have traditionally had fewer trained teachers available for learners in those regions.

Based on information from the Planning Unit data of the Ministry of Education, during the years 2013 to 2014, the hinterland regions (Regions One, Seven, Eight, and Nine) had the lower percentage of trained teachers- across the nursery, primary and secondary levels. From 2017 to 2018, the same was true.

Interestingly, however, based on the information provided for 2017 to 2018, the percentage of trained teachers in the various levels decreased. The only exception to this was the primary level in Region One; there was a three per cent increase in the number of trained teachers there.

Region Eight was particularly worrying, however. First, during both periods, Region Eight had the lowest percentage of trained teachers across the three levels. Worse, however, was that from 2017 to 2018, the percentage of trained teachers at the nursery level dropped from 24 per cent (2013- 2014) to 13 per cent. For the primary level, the figure moved from 35 per cent to 25 per cent. And, for the secondary level, from 47 per cent to 26 per cent.

Data such as this is important to inform and support our decision-making. Of course, that data must be supplemented by key considerations, such as the region’s geography and the access to much-needed resources such as electricity and transportation. Altogether, these help us all to understand what interventions would be necessary to help provide learners with greater access.

My point is, increasing access to education is not a one-dimensional issue and none of us should be under any assumption that simple decisions can effect meaningful change.

Indeed, it would be incredible if we all woke up tomorrow and the Ministry of Education announced that a new secondary school was being constructed somewhere in Region Eight- perhaps an outlying community where children have to travel miles to stay in a dorm to attend school. But at the same time, are children being served as well as they could be, if that school is not furnished with sufficient trained teachers?

Similarly, when we think about other means of expanding access to education by implementing more digital technologies, we have to think about who has access to the technology and who does not. If we are making quantum leaps into the future of education, but we are widening the gap between the children who have the resources or the greater level of access, then we are successfully moving the education sector forward.

Fortunately, all of the points I raised in this column are catered for in the new Education Sector Plan (2021- 2025). In fact, reducing inequities in the education sector is one of the stated policy priorities of the plan, cognisant that these inequities are “major problems.”

Even in addressing the need to increase education performance at all levels, the plan acknowledges that “… students in schools in socio-economically disadvantaged communities, mainly in the hinterland and deep riverain areas, are performing significantly below the national average.”

This all means that we recognise our issues and we at least want to try and solve those problems. And honestly, I believe that if we have more of what was done at Anna Regina, bridging the disparities in education will be one less problem the country has to deal with.

If you would like to connect with me to discuss this column or any of my previous works, feel free to email me at vish14ragobeer@gmail.com

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