–learners to undergo diagnostic academic tests to assess capacity, Education Minister says

PUBLIC schools across Guyana are expected to reopen fully for face-to-face learning on April 25, 2022, for the first time since the COVID-19 viruswas detected locally in March, 2020.

To ensure there is a smooth transition, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said there will be a phased reopening for the first week of school.

Paving the way for the reopening of public schools was President Dr Irfaan Ali on March 15, 2022, when he lifted the COVID-19 restrictions that were instituted to mitigate the spread of the virus.

When asked about the Ministry of Education’s decision to reopen schools, Minister Manickchand in an invited comment said that while dates for the return of learners from specific grades are still being finalised, it has been decided that grade seven students and nursery school children will be the last to return to school during the week of April 25, 2022.

“So, within the first week, grades will be going back on different dates. We’ll announce that shortly. We’re trying to make sure our schools are equipped and ready for sanitising and hand- washing and toilet-flushing and so on,” Minister Manickchand said.

DIAGNOSTIC TESTS
The Education Minister related that to identify the areas of need for each student as they re-enter a “new” education system, the ministry will be issuing diagnostic examinations in the four core areas: Mathematics, English, Social Studies, and Science.

Manickchand related that this will allow education officials to have statistical data on the direct impact of the two-year gap in the delivery of face-to-face education.

“Every single student is going to be diagnosed. We are issuing diagnostic Mathematics, English and Social studies, and Science, the four cores. Every student will be diagnosed and each student will be attended to individually to make sure that we recover from the COVID loss,” Minister Manickchand said.

Speaking directly to the ministry’s preparedness to deal with the delivery of education as the systems return to normal, Minister Manickchand said that measures have been put in place to recover from the significant time lost owing to the pandemic.

She related that a consolidated curriculum is expected to constitute one of the major changes to the local education system.

“We have consolidated all the curriculum[s]. So, from grades one to nine, we have shaved off things that are not necessary. We’ve made the curriculum into a 20-week curriculum….We are retraining teachers in health to deliver this consolidated curriculum,” Minister Manickchand said.

The minister also said that there is going to be an aggressive programme aimed at curbing illiteracy deficiencies, noting that the programme will be rolled out specifically to help the country recover from the “literacy loss” due to the pandemic.

Minister Manickchand related that the programme, which will be rolled out this year, will aim to ensure that every student is an avid reader.

She added: “You’ll see an entire national programme rolled out to recover from the literacy loss we would have had and all the gains we would have made that went down the drain in two years… we’re going to shortly be announcing how we’re going to do that.”

BRINGING THEM BACK
The Education Ministry recently launched “Operation Recovery” to locate children and reintegrate them into the school system.

Addressing this initiative, Minister Manickchand said the operation will be intensified when schools reopen this April.

She noted that the pilot of this initiate saw education officials locating, and resolving issues related to attendance at the grade six level.

“Operation recovery is going to be a prolonged activity. We started with grade six because we knew they had to be out. Once everybody comes back out and is duty-bound to come back out, mandated to come back out, then we could look to see who was absent at this stage because people have a choice not to come because we were rotating; we didn’t know if people were absent or if they just didn’t come.

“We could have started with grade six because we’re pretty sure if you were absent from an exam that you’re kind of heading towards more prolonged absenteeism,” Minister Manickchand related.

The Education Minister said that the pilot launch of Operation Recovery was extremely successful, noting that the ministry was able to locate and bring back into the school system just about three-quarters of the 1,300 students that were recorded as absent in grade six, since the pandemic started.