The Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand has come out in defence of the education sector, stating that there is no national crisis.
Her remarks come more than one week later, after the main opposition – A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) called for a Commission of Inquiry into Guyana’s education system.
In a press statement, Manickchand also acknowledged and accepted the fact that students are not doing their utmost best in the subjects of Mathematics and English and according to her, this is one issue that he world and the region is struggling with.
“We have to go back to the drawing table and determine what more has to be done,” Manickchand said.
While defending the education sector, Manickchand sought to explain that she is in no way justifying the performance of Guyanese students at this year’s CSEC.
“The Ministry was the first to admit that there is a problem and has been implementing several initiatives to address it. These include Continuous Professional Development Courses in English and Mathematics for teachers, incentives for those teachers who graduate from these courses, additional training for teachers in low performing schools, television programmes for students in Maths and English and the Maths and English pilot programme.”
According to the Education Minister, there are many explanations for the problem of high failure rates in mathematics, thus the Ministry has to adopt a comprehensive approach to solving the problem.
“No single-minded approach would solve the problem. In the meantime the Ministry has to acknowledge and encourage students who have done well.”
Manickchand believes that she should be “applauded” for personally meeting the students who did well at this year’s CSEC.
