Letter: Education Ministry responds to letter written by Swami Aksharananda

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Education Minister Priya Manickchand

Dear Editor,

The Ministry of Education wishes to respond to a letter published in the Tuesday, October 19, 2021 edition of Guyana Times, Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News newspapers written by Swami Aksharananda concerning the recital of the Universal Pray at last Thursday’s announcement of the CSEC and CAPE 2021 results.

The Ministry wishes to inform the writer and Guyana at large that, during the event, the prayer recited by the 2020 Most Outstanding Student for CSEC, Bhedesh Persaud, was the Universal Prayer, which does not subscribe to any particular religion.
It is the same prayer that is recited at the sittings of the National Assembly.

The Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, during her previous stint as Education Minister, had insisted that wherever a prayer is done at any function hosted by the Ministry or any of its departments, the Universal Prayer or a silent prayer is done, with the only exception being those events held in Amerindian communities.

The Ministry agrees that no one religion, ethnicity, gender etc. is or should be made to be seen as dominant over the other, and has noted that there have been some events where the intention of the Ministry and its policy was not followed, and had re-issued a memo, with the Universal Prayer attached, reminding of said policy.

Sincerely,
Public Relations
Department
Ministry of Education

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