[www.inewsguyana.com] – In response to problems such as a high level of illiteracy, the large number of school drop-outs and the constantly falling standard of the University of Guyana (UG), the newly appointed Minister of Education Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine has signaled his intention to completely overhaul the education system.
“We are not satisfied with the way in which literacy in this country is going. We are very unhappy with the large number of drop outs from the system,” the Education Minister told the Government Information Agency (GINA.)
“It is not working when you are losing hundreds of people who are not completing school. It is not working if people are coming out of school, not being able to read and write completely. It is not working if the standard of the university is constantly falling. These are things that we need to address and we have to begin to do a thorough analysis and understanding of what has gone wrong in the education system and we have to begin at the beginning,” Dr. Roopnaraine said.
The Education Minister noted that absolutely everything will be looked at, from the curriculum to the text books that are being used in the classroom. He explained that revision must be at the earliest level of education in Guyana because “the mistakes that we make when they are very small and very young are the mistakes that we come to regret when they are very much older.”
“So we want to see the education system of the child and the process of educating the child as beginning from really right down at the bottom, when the child is very small all the way to tertiary,” he said.
He noted that the overhaul will be a long process, but one that must be done and in a systematic way to ensure that at every level of the education system the student is better prepared.
“That means intense scrutiny of the curriculum, intense scrutiny of all the text books, we have to ensure that what is being taught is correct,” he said.
He added that, “…education, culture, sports, and youths are in fact the areas, where we are able to work at uniting a divided country. This is the task of this ministry. The task of this ministry is not just to produce excellent students, but we have a larger more profound political task. It is through our work in culture, education and among the young that we are going to in effect bring about the healing and reconciliation of the country and bring people together and go forward as one.”
The Education Minister is at the moment looking at the establishment of the various Departments, meeting with the different Heads of the Departments, interviewing persons and trying to get practitioners who are experienced in all these areas of operations to make their contributions to the process.
He said that the ministry will start to take action as soon as it can, based on real assessment. [Extracted and modified from GINA]
Please don’t blame the PNC for 23 years of PPP failures in the Education sector
Keep on blaming the PNC for everything. The PNC did not destroy the education system. Anyhow if they did and i strongly disagree what happened the last 23 years. I went to school during the PNC and i have 3 degrees two from the University of Toronto and one from University of New Brunswick.
It is very imperative that the profile of those who are leaders and so call leaders of this country must have a very solid profile as well. In other words you can’t have the blind leading the blind. We have to ensure the political leaders as well as educators are meeting the required standards to impart sound knowledge in the educational process. We have to firstly have a solid plan that is geared toward educational excellence and one that can be implemented and sustain itself through setting up of adhoc teams to monitors to ensure the process are being precisely followed. As I recalled my young days at school in Guyana, this is how it used to be until brutally destroyed by the PNC in the past. This indeed will enable this beautiful country of Guyana as I recall on the top 5 literacy rate in the world. A well educated and Healthy nation will always be a progressive one. With a high level of education it will open doors for opportunities to grow and succeed towards a positive results. As a process implementation specialist, I am confident we will reap the benefits within 5 to 10 years. I was educated in my early age in Guyana and completed university in Canada and the USA. Had it not been for the educational system we enjoyed 4 to 5 decades ago I probably would not have attained the level that I currently experience. I wish this country all the best. We have absolutely no reason to have the level of poverty in Guyana with a population of 800,000 people and the resources we have, we should have a GDP OF MINIMUM 8 TO 10%. Unfortunately this could not be materialized due to willful destruction and poor leadership over the past 5 decades and leaders who are in it for the money and not the welfare of the people. Honestly, give me 7 years to lead this little island of 800,000 people and it will be one of the most progressive nation in the world. Just my few sense and I apologize for the long message.
Hopefully, this signals the return to the tried, true and proven “rote” system that benefitted all before the mis-guided attempt to copy a failed system.