Citing the results of the National Grade Six Assessment and the attendant large number of students being “left behind,” leader of APNU, David Granger says that “education apartheid” is returning to Guyana.
The APNU leader made the comment while speaking on the occasion of the 28th death anniversary of former president Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, who founded the People’s National Congress. “Brigadier Granger said that Burnham’s commitment to the decolonization of the education system in Guyana saw the establishment of the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus; the Cyril Potter College of Education; the many Multilateral Schools and other secondary schools that were built by self-help. He explained that Guyana National Service was established by Mr. Burnham not only to address the serious youth unemployment problem that faced the nation but also to give Guyanese youth a second chance at gaining an education,” a statement from APNU yesterday said.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand has said that quality education is available across Guyana. “Because of equal access, because of equity across the system, because of those deliberate policies to make sure children right across Guyana irrespective of what colour you are, or how wealthy your parents are or what school you’re from and which region you’re from – you could access quality education…you have seen how that has produced, over the years, top students from everywhere…we can no longer map where the top student is coming from,” she had said earlier this year while speaking about Guyanese excelling at the CXC exams.
Meantime, the APNU statement said that Granger chronicled the many achievements and the many visionary accomplishments of the Burnham-led PNC government.
He also said that the PNCR would make the Forbes Burnham Research Institute a reality. The institute is necessary to keep the Burnham legacy alive so that generations can understand who he was, what he did and the role he played in the development of Guyana, the statement said. Granger said that the Institute would be a repository of everything that the PNCR succeeded in doing during the period 1964- 1992.
The PNCR leader also told the gathering at the ceremony -which was planned by the National Congress of Women (NCW), the women’s arm of the PNCR – that Burnham brought Guyana a message that was visionary and forward looking. He identified the decolonization of Guyana’s education system; national self-reliance; rural electrification; the Canje Bridge; the Demerara Harbour Bridge; the Linden-Soesdyke Highway and the Corentyne Highway and the many other coastal roads as among the many achievements of the Burnham administration.
Granger also called for a reprinting and reproduction of all of the works of the former president so that there can be a greater understanding of the direction in which Guyana was travelling. “To loud applause he told the gathering that Forbes Burnham was not dead but a living idea that gives us hope and continues to inspire, and called on all to fulfill his vision of trying to achieve a good life for all Guyanese,” the statement said.
