-President Ali urges holistic teaching to promote behavioural changes
-commissions multimillion-dollar school at Zeelught

TO promote positive behavioural changes, President Dr. Irfaan Ali has urged educators to pursue a holistic approach to engaging pupils at the primary school level, focusing on three major components: the home, the school and community.

The Head of State made the call at the commissioning of the newly constructed Zeelught Primary School in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), on Friday.

“I want us to address these three things, the home, the school and the community. In addition, I want to address these three issues in the context of the young minds. These are primary school children, they’re young children. Their brain is developing. Their thinking process is developing. The way they perceive problems is developing,” President Ali said.

The idea is for educators to target learnt behaviour, taught behaviour and societal and environmental influence. According to the Head of State these are ‘push factors’ that heavily influences young minds.

He believes if these factors are intertwined with daily academics, children can adopt and maintain positive behaviour, further driving changes in communities and society.

“You know, in society sometimes, we don’t always have the best circumstances. People get up in the morning and decide to fight each other, curse each other, so that too can have an impact on our children. That is why we’re trying to create in every community, family space, green areas, recreational areas, because these are all important areas in creating a safe new environment and for our children.”

He noted that educators must also understand learnt environment, understand what are the problems in the society that shape young minds.
“If we show the children that a tree is sacred, and you care for a tree, or we spend time planting trees, that is something they will inculcate. They will grow up wanting to plant trees,” he said adding: “
“We have to shape the young minds to create balance differentiation at this young stage in the primary school. We have to ensure that children’s minds and the thinking process is developed to differentiate what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is not good, what constitute good behaviour against not so good behaviour.”

He noted that the aim is to modify behavioural patterns and then further examine how to reorient children.

“That will allow us to shape the best minds in the primary school system for our country and our future. That is the important task for us, the building of schools, the expansion of the economy and the creating of opportunities.”

Meanwhile, Education Minister Priya Manickchand pointed out that the multimillion-dollar project is among several commitments that have been delivered to enhance the delivery of education.

Manickchand recalled visiting the school some time back when she was informed that the building was so dilapidated it would often shake.

“We don’t speak sometimes enough of what we’re doing, but as we speak now, from 2020 to now, President Ali’s administration … is currently building 26 secondary schools, has built 42 nursery schools, has built 18 primary schools, and has trained the most teachers that this country has ever trained at any given time.”

Initially, the Zeelught Primary School was housed in various residential homes due to the lack of a permanent building. In 1964, a new school was established, but overcrowding became an issue. In 2016, an annex was built, and in 2021, Minister Manickchand promised to rebuild the school due to its deteriorating condition.

A multi-million contract was awarded for the reconstruction of the school and pupils were temporarily housed at religious facilities. Pupils will now return to spanking new classrooms for this new school term which commenced on Monday.