PRESIDENT Dr. Irfaan Ali has stressed the importance of equitably distributed resources in a holistic education system, as he delivered the feature address at the commissioning of the long-awaited Good Hope Secondary School on the East Coast of Demerara, on Wednesday afternoon.

According to Dr. Ali, education gives everyone the opportunity to be a holistic citizen, and a holistic member of the human family, and as such, everyone should be afforded the equal access to this opportunity.

The President made this remark as he shared an anecdote of his own upbringing and transitioning from a primary school on the West Demerara where there were not certain amenities, to being awestruck by the level of amenities present when he graduated to attending, St Stanislaus College, one of the top secondary schools in the country, which is in the capital city Georgetown.

“I’m a President who wants to have a great Guyana, and I want every region to be part of that great story and to do that we have to recognise that the story I’m telling you about where I came from, is a story across the country of where there were great disparities in equality and expenditure, where some regions were left lagging behind. Because there was no evenness in the expenditure,” the President shared.

He continued: “So while we celebrate the greatness of Region Four there was a time when many regions lagged behind because they did not have the same opportunities that we have in Region Four and we must acknowledge this because it is an important point to note that for education to be delivered in an even way requires even investment across every single region to ensure that all children have an opportunity to be the best they can be.”

The opening of the Good Hope Secondary school will see the closing of all the primary top schools on the East Coast Demerara, which includes primary tops at Enterprise, Paradise and Enmore. This will now afford underprivileged students the opportunity to receive a top-notch education at a state-of-the-art secondary school that comes equipped with all the amenities for a high-quality education.

In Guyana, “Primary Top Schools”, as they are called, are primary schools with a secondary school department, and are used as an alternative for students who would not have attained enough scores at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) to be placed at a secondary school.

Though a traditional secondary school runs from Grades Seven to Eleven, classes at “Primary Top” schools run from Grades Seven to Nine, and the students are usually transferred to a secondary school after writing the National Grade Nine Assessment (NGNA).

A Grade ‘A’, List B school, Good Hope comes well fitted with several amenities including various IT, chemistry, biology, physic and industrial technology labs, home economics rooms, smart classrooms, and a visual audio room, among other conveniences.

The school will have the capacity to hold between 800 – 1000 students.

Approximately 700 students are expected to be the first batch to attend the school with approximately 400 students coming from the primary tops and approximately 200 pupils who recently wrote the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) scheduled to be placed there.

Another 93 students who were already placed at the school but were unable to attend due to the school not being completed will also now be able to move into their new school.

Approximately 60 teachers are initially expected to be placed at the school.

The school, is the second school to be completed under the Guyana Secondary Education Improvement Project (GSEIP), which is being funded with financing from the World Bank. The GSEIP schools are part of the government’s overarching programme to achieve universal secondary education, that is ensuring every eligible student has access to a secondary school.

The Westminster Secondary on the West Demerara is the only other GSEIP secondary to be completed thus far. However, a secondary school in Yarrowkabra is scheduled to be completed and commissioned shortly. Another GSEIP school is scheduled to be built in Prospect on the East Bank Demerara.

Also making remarks at the commissioning ceremony Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand underscored the important role that the completion of the Good Hope and other secondary schools will play in the delivery of education.

“Every time we fail to put down a school, children can’t get educated at any proper quality and children drop out. Just under 1000 students were unable to get a secondary school right here on the east coast and were going to primary tops,” she noted.

Minister Manickchand continued: “With the completion of Good Hope the east coast of demerara achieves universal secondary education. We are going to close down the six primary tops that currently exist and the children are going to be able to come to a discrete secondary school. It means a secondary school that caters for secondary education, with labs and trained teachers and classrooms that are outfitted for secondary age children.”