FOR the first time in history, the Ministry of Education will be giving all pupils in Grades One to Six in the public school system the textbooks needed for studies at their level.

Additionally, attempts are currently being made to standardise the list of textbooks used at the secondary school level, so that a similar initiative can be implemented.

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand, made these disclosures as she delivered remarks at an event on Friday at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).

She said that 22 containers with textbooks are currently en route to Guyana, but storage space is likely to be a challenge for the ministry. It is for this reason that the ministry is eager to distribute the books when they arrive here in Guyana.

“We will give to every child in Grade One to Six, every textbook they need from Region One to Georgetown. We have begun, and I will say with great pride, we can’t recall a time where every single primary school child had every single book they needed,” Minister Manickchand noted.

She explained that in the past, only some of the pupils in primary schools received textbooks, but with the aggressive approach to education that the ministry has adopted over the past year, all students will now be prioritised.

The textbooks are expected to cover every subject area and will be distributed to the pupils once logistics are put in place for the distribution exercise.

This exercise will be an extension of one that began with the Grade Six pupils earlier this year, while they were preparing for the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA). Several of those children have attributed their good performances to receipt of the textbooks, and the many other resource materials that the ministry made available to aid them in their studies.

The minister added that a similar exercise is on the cards for the secondary school level, but the ministry encountered bottlenecks when it began surveying schools for the list of required textbooks. It was soon realised that not all schools are utilising the same books at all the levels.

“It’s a fight about the secondary school books now. We want to give them all the books they need …We are in a conversation now that is looking to see what is the most modern and useful textbook in every subject in the secondary sector,” she said.

It is expected that the books will be returned after the completion of each level of study so that others can benefit from the initiative.