Education Minister Shaik Baksh says the ministry intends to focus on continuous assessment at the primary level and he said results from a literacy drive had been very encouraging.
Baksh made this disclosure at a press conference on Friday where he also unveiled a series of plans and targets his ministry has set for the new year. The minister noted that increasing performance at grades two and four and six was important to good performance at higher levels. “So at an early stage we see where a school…has a problem and we smooth that out before the children go on to another level,” he said.
Against this background, Baksh also noted that another priority was to address inequalities in the different education districts. He said too more trained teachers were needed and the ministry needed to collaborate more with the PTA to ensure that other schools perform better.
The minister told reporters that the greatest challenge facing the education sector was teacher motivation. He acknowledged that work conditions and remuneration were factors which would have to be addressed as there could be no successes within a school system where teachers were unmotivated. Baksh opined that the education system was built in an authoritarian way and so there tended to always be a top down approach. The minister vowed that he would provide the leadership that is required in this regard and pledged to work with the GTU to achieve this.
As regard his relationship with the union Baksh said it was satisfactory despite ups and downs. He said he had not agreed to the union’s request to host meetings during school hours as he intends to bring an end to the unnecessary reduction of teaching in class hours.
Meanwhile, the minister said the hard work of dedicated staff contributed to the ministry overcoming many challenges in 2008. Baksh had in the past raised concerns about the fact that many primary school children were passing through the system and were allowed to go into high school without basic literacy and numeracy skills. The ministry has embarked on a literacy and numeracy pilot programme, the results of which Baksh said had been very encouraging.
Some 10, 500 children from 45 pilot schools who earned as low as 40% in the assessment exams were enrolled in the programme. According to the minister the performance of most of the students has risen to 56%, which he said is encouraging enough for the initiative to continue. Baksh also reported that the ministry has been able to strengthen decentralization with a greater role for the education division in the various regions.
Further he said the ministry has been working closely with the Ministry of Labour to monitor absenteeism in schools and it has since strengthened its welfare department with 26 welfare officers. A national PTA co-ordinator has also been appointed to re-energise the associations in all schools.
Baksh said too more emphasis will be placed on English, Maths and the sciences in schools and to this end internal training would be carried out for the teachers in these subject areas. He said last year the ministry counted much success in this area as Guyana outshone many of her Caribbean sisters by having the best overall students in many subject areas in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations. However Baksh said this performance would have to be broadened.
Regarding tertiary education, Baksh said there is urgent need for the University of Guyana to move towards online registrations. He said this action is long overdue and he committed to ensuring that it will be realised this year.
The minister said many changes would need to be made at the institution to ensure that it is better able to face the challenges of producing graduates capable of contributing to the development of the country. Baksh said too the university has also been plagued with the late submission of exam results from lecturers and sanctions would be put in place to stem this practice.