–Minister Manickchand affirms, MoE begins search for pupils absent from NGSA

WITH approximately 1300 public school Grade Six pupils not turning out to write the 2022 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) earlier this month, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has ramped up efforts to get the children back into school with the launch of “Operation Recovery” on Friday.

“Operation Recovery” is part of a number of measures being implemented by the ministry to address the issue of school dropouts, which has affected countries all across the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has disrupted education delivery for almost two years now, and caused prolonged school closures.

The initiative was rolled out across all 11 of the school districts, with education officers from Central Ministry and within the Education Districts, along with regional officials and community activists fanning out into the various communities to locate the pupils.

Braving early morning showers on Friday, Education Minister Priya Manickchand and Chief Education Officer Dr. Marcel Hutson joined a number of education officials to personally visit the homes of the Grade Six pupils who have consistently been absent from school.

As a preemptive measure, it is hoped that the pupils can get back into the school system to write the official NGSA exam, which has been set for July 6 – 7, and avoid becoming a school dropout at such a young age.

“It is a very alarming number for us, and we are assuming that if you were missing from an ‘exam’, it’s kind of said that you could be at higher risk of dropping out. But this is not happening in Guyana alone; this is happening across the world,” Minister Manickchand said, adding:

“It was my pleasure this morning, going from house-to-house not only trying to get children back to school, but learning what are some of the problems that people have in managing their homes, their lives, and their children’s education. It is a great pleasure to do a service like this, and I thank, in advance, all the persons who you are going to be going out with beginning from today.”

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, Minister Manickchand noted that a number of reasons were unearthed behind what was keeping the learners out of school, however, the ministry’s focus is now on putting sustained measures in place to assist, wherever possible, to ensure the pupils are back in school.

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“What we’re doing we’re not just going and saying you need to go to school; where there is a need that exists as to why the child can’t turn up to school, we are trying to meet that need through collaborations with various ministries. And we’re trying to make sure that this is sustained, and that they are not only going to turn up to school but stay in school,” Minister Manickchand noted.

Minister Manickchand stressed that Guyana will not be left to be among the statistics of countries that suffer as a result of seeing large numbers of dropouts and large gaps and learning loss in the academic world.

“We have to put measures to mitigate against that type off harsh consequences. One of the things that we are insisting on is that no child at the NGSA level will drop out of school,” she said.
The minister also appealed to the general public to get onboard with assisting the ministry in identifying and locating any child who has been missing school consistently.

“We need all of Guyana to get onboard with us; we’re asking for help in this effort. If you know a child that’s not going to school, then do your part in making that happen, or call us and let us know that the child is not going to school, and we will make sure that we assist in whatever way we can,” the minister said.

Though school has been reopened physically to learners, somewhat, since January, many schools across the country are still operating on a rotation or shift system for learners attending classes, in order to accommodate necessary COVID-19 protocols such as social distancing.

However, the ministry is working towards the full reopening of schools, and once that has been done, Minister Manickchand noted, the ministry will be carrying out similar house-to-house visits to locate other absent learners across all grade levels.