THE Ministry of Education (MoE) will provide all of the Mathematics and English textbooks, free of cost, to students from Grades Seven to 13, from the next school year, commencing September 2022.
This was announced by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand during an award ceremony held earlier this week at the National Cultural Centre (NCC), here in Georgetown.

“By September, every student from Grade Seven to Grade 13 will have all the Mathematics, English and Literature textbooks that they need,” Minister Manickchand said.
The distribution of the textbooks will mark the fulfilment of yet another promise made by the government to improve education.

Earlier this year, the government provided all pupils from Grades One to Six in the public school system with all the textbooks needed for studies at their respective levels.
Minister Manickchand had announced then that plans will be put in place to extend this to the secondary school level.

The Minister noted that this latest measure is part of wider initiatives taken by her ministry and the Government of Guyana to reduce the burden on parents to send their children to school. The aim of the government’s support is to ensure higher performance among learners.

“There were complaints before about the long book lists that we in the Ministry and schools were sending to parents. So, these changes ought to see significant output; better output and less coming out of the pockets of families,” Minister Manickchand said.

“If we are going to do this together: The Ministry, the government, the parents, the schools, the teachers, [and] the students, then surely we should be able to see better results,” she added.
It is expected that the books will be returned after the completion of each level of study, so that other learners can benefit from the initiative.

In addition to providing the textbooks, parents will also be receiving $30,000 for each child enrolled in school.