Dear Editor,
I wish to draw to the attention of the general public some important issues that are creating difficulties in the delivery of education in Region 6, East Berbice/ Corentyne.
The Regional Authorities are downplaying the importance of education. NCN Berbice frequently cuts important programmes such as CXC Mathematics and English to broadcast other programmes at the time when the students are preparing for their examinations. These programmes are already paid for and the government is spending large sums of money to get them on the air and here in Berbice the students do not get an opportunity to view them. These programmes help students a great deal in preparation for examinations. The Regional Ed-ucation Officer held a face the community meeting (08-03-18). This meeting failed to achieve its objectives because parents were not properly informed about the meeting. Calls were made to the schools the day before the meeting and in some schools the day the meeting was scheduled to be held. This resulted in a poor turnout. The officials need to give parents advance notice of such an interactive forum via NCN Berbice and other media.
Many schools are still to receive adequate furniture. Many students have to share seats by sitting three in a bench. In some cases, the parents have to take their own furniture to schools just to provide their kids with a comfortable seat.
Schools received a directive to prepare projects for the regional science fair. Students worked laboriously to get their projects up and running. Those who gained first and second positions were supposed to represent the region at the national level. They were very excited and saw it to be very challenging and they were enthusiastic to represent their schools and the region as a whole. Now the national science fair is just a few days away and schools have not heard from the department yet. However, a source close to the department has indicated that the department does not have the financial resources to take the students to the science fair. This is ridiculous. Have they not budgeted for the science fair? Although they claimed not to have sufficient money to send the team to represent the region at the national science fair, they will have financial resources to host meetings for head teachers at hotels at exorbitant costs, as usual.
With the national science fair being held biennially, our students will not get another chance to go to the national science fair until 2010. Is this the way to improve and motivate science students in the region?
I do hope that some will take these points seriously and that we will see some changes.
Yours faithfully,
S. Jaikarran
