THE 2021 Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) top performer and former Queen’s College student, Samuel Haynes, will be representing Guyana next week at the United Nations’ Transforming Education Pre-Summit in Paris, France.

The pre-Summit will be held from June 28 to June 30. The full Summit will be held in September in New York City, U.S.
Haynes will be one of two persons representing Guyana at the meeting, according to Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, during her address at a public event. The meeting focuses on the future of education worldwide.
The other participant, whose name was not provided, is described as a young teacher from Mahaicony Creek.

Speaking with the media corps on Wednesday, Haynes expressed joy at the honour of representing Guyana on the international stage.
“I feel very thrilled that I was selected to attend [and] to represent Guyana,” the young scholar said, adding: “I am extremely grateful to the Government of Guyana for selecting me, so that I can go out there and really show the world what we have to offer in terms of education.

“As a [recent] past student, I can offer a lot of advice on some of the things that can be done to improve education around the world so that our future generations can be different,” Haynes explained.
Asked about his potential talking points, Haynes said: “One of the main things I was thinking about is that our children really need to understand the vitality of education… we need to truly ensure children are educated on the importance of education, so that they are motivated to give of their best.”

Haynes was Guyana’s top student at the 2021 CAPE sitting where he passed nine units with Grade Ones.
For his performance in 2021, Haynes received an award at the ceremony yesterday under the “Special Recognition CAPE 2021” category.

Next week’s pre-Summit is a prelude to the official UN Transforming Education Summit. The United Nations Secretary-General is convening the Transforming Education Summit (TES) during the 77th UN General Assembly.

The pre-Summit will likely set the agenda for the full Summit, and will allow feedback from children, young people, students, parents, and teachers on their vision for transforming education.
This is the first time the UN Secretary General is convening a Summit to discuss transforming education in the world.

“We’ve already done a series of consultations on how we believe we can transform education in Guyana,” Minister Manickchand said, noting further that the inclusion of children and young people in the country’s delegation to the pre-Summit was especially encouraged.

Recognising that education is a human right and a foundation for peace, tolerance, other human rights and sustainable development, the UN Secretary-General announced in his report to the UN General Assembly on ‘Our Common Agenda’ his intention to convene a Transforming Education Summit (TES) in September 2022

The Minister explained that the Summit in September is being held to discuss how the world wants to re-imagine education.

“[From] COVID, and even before COVID, we needed to make some changes and transform some things from the traditional means of learning and teaching.
“So, COVID gave the impetus to have a deeper, more profound examination not by individual countries but by the whole world,” the Education Minister continued.