EAST La Penitence Primary School opened a reading club on Tuesday, assisted with the donation of books by the Rotary Club of Georgetown.
Present at the opening were members of the donor organisation, Minister of Education, Ms. Priya Manickhand, who delivered the feature address and officials of her ministry, including Chief Education Officer (CEO), Mr. Olato Sam. Acknowledging the donor, the minister noted that partnership is what is taking this country forward.
She said the Education Ministry is there to ensure that such good education is imparted to children that, as they leave primary school, they would be literate and well educated. However, this cannot be done unless everyone, parents, teachers, religious and community leaders, play an active role in the lives of the children.
Manickchand said the Rotary Club, which is, perhaps, considered social in nature, has a big responsibility to partner with entities such as Scotiabank, ANSA McAL, Digicel and others.
She emphasised that engaging in an activity in which teachers, parents and other Rotarians come and assist the children to read in what has been developed into a club would be very beneficial, as book clubs are meant to be fun places where lots of learning happens.
Manickchand said that is the kind of partnership Guyana needs to advance its development and, as the country celebrates its highest achievement in terms of literacy, the Education Ministry would be the first to inform the public that much more work is required before it could be satisfied that almost every single child can read and count.
She reiterated that, until the ministry is satisfied that not a single child is left behind in areas of reading and counting, it will consider that it is having a lot of work to do.

MORE ACTIVITIES
Manickchand encouraged more activities involving the Rotary Club of Guyana, deeming the occasion beneficial to the children of the country.
She announced that the Education Ministry is embarking on an initiative to bring together all local literacy experts from across the country to brainstorm the best way in pushing literacy to ensure children can comprehend what they read, in order to improve results of learning at the primary grade.
Once that is achieved, Guyana would be benefitting, the minister pointed out.
She, specifically, admonished children who belong to the school’s reading club to not only learn to read and count but also to care the books, as the organisation would need to pass on the opportunity to others.
She invited any other organisations to contribute books to the reading club but observed that if they are not used they will be of no benefit to the pupils.
Parents and teachers were urged to play active roles in developing the children’s literacy and numeracy skills and teachers were requested to dedicate themselves to assist immensely for the sake of the children.
CEO Sam remarked that literacy has been at the forefront of the ministry’s initiative since officials recognise the key role it plays in ensuring the ministry’s educational targets are attained.
He said that major emphasis has been placed on strengthening educational output at the early childhood level, as a means of ensuring that no child exits the primary cycle without mastering the literacy expectations.

CURRENT MANDATE
Sam said that, as a matter of fact, the current mandate is that every child must be able to read by grade three and the ministry has made significant strides in that regard.
He expressed his joy at the 2012 grade four literacy assessment results and declared that they are the best, to date, in the history of the grade four assessments.
Sam said one of the critical elements of book clubs is the ability to instill in young people the sheer joy of reading and being exposed to a wide range of concepts and themes.
He said teachers play an integral part, like everyone else, in making certain that such an initiative is successful in attaining the broader objective of Guyana becoming a nation where everyone wants to live and making sure that every child is given an opportunity to be educated.
Georgetown Rotary President, Mr. Khalil Alli said the Club intends to regularly monitor the progress of the first phase of the project for this school year.
He said that, while this pilot phase is restricted to three primary schools – East La Penitence; Patentia, West Bank Demerara and Quamina, at Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara –  the Club is optimistic that, with positive reviews, it will be able to support the ministry in establishing reading clubs in other schools across the country.
Alli said the purpose, from the beginning, was that this project should be much more than just providing the books. There had to be an agreed approach to all aspects of the functioning of the clubs that will, hopefully, see positive benefits for the children.