Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam yesterday called on the private and public sectors to provide more access to literature in an effort to combat illiteracy as Guyana joins countries worldwide in celebrating International Literacy Day.
At a reading fair that was organised by the Ministry of Education, as part of its activities for Education Month, the Chief Education Officer, stressed on the necessity of developing a more literate society beginning with the participation of both the private and public sectors.
“This (illiteracy) can no longer be regarded as only a schoolhouse or classroom issue, but must resonate from the bottom houses, rum shops and street corners to the highest offices and platforms Guyana,” said Sam.
In order for this to materialise, Sam said there should be widespread access to free or low-cost literacy programmes through a range of media while employers must adopt ways in supporting their employees in becoming more literate, just as parents internalise a sense of responsibility to ensure that their children are not robbed of the opportunity to be literate productive citizens. Given that the success rates at the Grade Three and Grade Six examinations indicate that literacy is still a daunting challenge, the Ministry of Education, said Sam, have taken specific steps to ensure greater numbers of students master the literacy expectations by the completion of the primary cycle.
Deputy Chief Education Officer, Doodmattie Singh, in an invited comment, said that thus far, schools have eliminated the accumulation of points at the Grades Two and Four examinations that would determine which school a student should attend. Singh added that currently, the scores earned at those exams serve only as a guide to teachers so as to have a fair idea of the areas most needed to be focused on.
Besides apt remarks made by Sam, Technical Advisor to the Minister of Education, Vincent Alexander in an invited comment to this publication, said in order to reduce the influx of illiterate persons in society and in schools, literacy forums must be held as part of community activities while remedial works in school must be carried out.
“We need wider community activities so that persons can create literacy forums and teachers can start by addressing problems in the schools by carrying out remedial work, like having one-on-one sessions with those children that needs help,” suggested Alexander. Meanwhile, at the reading fair, a plethora of students from schools across Georgetown were seen collecting books that were donated to the Ministry of Education by organisations and persons. Students from the Wismar Primary School and Queen’s College were spotted gathering science and literature text books to take to their in-class libraries. Teachers from those schools expressed their appreciation towards the Ministry for affording them the opportunity to collect free books and are hoping this activity can be a “continuous” one and not just an annual one. International Literacy Day was celebrated in most regions in Guyana yesterday as the Ministry of Education continues to host activities like this, to commemorate Education Month.