THE Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC®), Guyana’s Education Ministry, and the Council for Technical Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), on Tuesday, hosted a post-stakeholder meeting after concluding the assessment of 34 secondary schools here to offer the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ).

This is according to a public statement from the Education Ministry.
An overview of the assessment was provided by Linda Stuart-Doman, CVQ Auditor and Manager in the regional examination body’s Syllabus and Curriculum Development Department.

According to the MoE, Stuart-Doman said the exercise focused on assessing the readiness of the institutions to deliver the regional occupational standards and implement the CXC quality assurance criteria in training candidates pursuing programmes for CVQ certification.

The CXC official commended Guyana on the second staging of the pre-readiness for the execution of CVQ in secondary schools. During the audit, the MoE noted in its statement that 12 programmes were assessed.
Following the audit, several recommendations were made including the need to develop a targeted approach to infrastructural development, renovation and maintenance in secondary schools across the country.

Additionally, recommendations were made towards ensuring there is a comprehensive understanding of the CVQ implementation process amongst educators.
In brief remarks, Chief Education Officer, Dr. Marcel Hutson, reiterated the Ministry’s commitment to ensuring that all the students are offered a secondary level education that will make them academically and economically viable.

“It’s not the start, it’s the finish that we must focus on because of the children who are waiting upon us to fulfil the purpose, to fulfil the potential and I know we can do it.
“I know we can do it because the fact that we are here today and the fact that we’ve endured — we had the opening session and now closing session — tells me that we are in a good place to move this process forward,” Dr. Hutson said.

He further called on the educators to view themselves as catalysts of change and urged them to use their skills to transform the education sector.
Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Education Officer (Technical), Marcia Paddy, noted that having completed a pilot of CVQ, it has become evident that the expansion of the programme is the next step.

She highlighted that TVET has been positioning itself within the education sector for several years, recognising now an opportune time to embrace the process of implementing CVQ.
Presently, eight schools in Guyana are offering CVQ certification in four areas.

“The Ministry intends to add 34 more schools to that list with the bigger aim to eventually have CVQ programmes offered in every secondary school across Guyana so that each child can exit secondary school with both a CXC certificate and a CVQ certificate,” the Education Ministry said.