– current situation “unacceptable” in light of massive government investments, says Manickchand

By Feona Morrison

EDUCATION Minister Priya Manickchand has revealed that, apart from the current strike by the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), approximately 30 per cent of teachers are absent from work on any given day.
During her appearance on a recent episode of The Guyana Dialogue, she ascribed this elevated rate of absenteeism to a confluence of factors.

“At least 30 per cent of teachers are not in school. And for me, it is very sad. Every day, we have those kinds of absences happening. I don’t think it is all just delinquent behaviour. The teaching service is made up of primarily women. And so, we have all kinds of issues including pregnancies, maternity leave and then illnesses that are unique to women,” she explained.

Although some of these absences are justified, the Minister emphasised that the education system must adjust to ensure these absences do not negatively impact learners.
She indicated that this issue would be addressed “once we get back to a level of normalcy.” “We need to talk about how unacceptable this situation is,” she remarked.

Highlighting the massive investments in the education system under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government—such as more teachers being trained or in training and increased salaries—she stated that better performance will now be expected from teachers.

She also alluded to teachers pursuing studies through full scholarships offered by the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL). She also pointed out that the system has been “too gentle” in the past. “We are paying teachers more by giving allowances for degrees and master’s and PhDs. We are training teachers more so we have our teachers now training at no cost to themselves and at no loss of salary. We are really investing a lot into the system. We’re going to have to start seeing some proportionate results or we’re going to have to start talking about that.

“I think it’s fine to call for better salaries and so on. I think it’s ridiculous when people are unreasonable. It is fine to call for more. I think the system is going to have to become more accountable. I think accountable has to mean that, like in any other profession, when you don’t perform there has to be mandatory retraining or exit,” Manickchand noted.

Manickchand said: “When we [PPP/C] came into office in 1993, we had about 30 per cent of our teachers trained with only less than 30 per cent of our children being able to access high schools, classrooms that were overcrowded… We have changed out all of that. We are now at a place where we have more teachers trained or in training that ever before. We have 100 per cent of our teachers trained or in training. We have classrooms more than we have ever had in the history of the country.”

She noted that the United Nations (UN) has recognised Guyana for achieving universal primary education. With the ongoing construction of more secondary schools, the education minister predicted that Guyana will attain universal secondary education by the end of 2025.

Regarding welfare matters, she highlighted that the ministry has been offering breakfast and lunch to school children, in addition to cash grants, textbooks, and other educational resources.
Additionally, she mentioned that the Education Ministry is actively pursuing strategies to address and minimise the repercussions of the high rate of absenteeism. Furthermore, she observed that although delinquency can occasionally be attributed to subpar student performance, it frequently originates from inadequate supervision in school administration.

According to her, current absenteeism issue underscores the need for urgent reforms.
Consequently, she underscored the necessity of monitoring and evaluation to guarantee the efficacy of classroom instruction in cultivating children into productive and competitive adults.