Students writing literature under the 2015 to 2017 CSEC literature syllabus will have the assistance of a study guide to Wole Soyinka’s play The Lion and the Jewel, which was handed over to the Ministry of Education by Dr Joyce Jonas yesterday, at Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company’s (GT&T) boardroom.
Jonas, a retired University of Guyana Lecturer, speaking at a ceremony where 125 study guides were handed over, said the guide had its genesis in her casually putting her thoughts together. However, she decided to complete the guide and have it published, in the light of her awareness of the difficulties faced by teachers and students.
When she’d finished, Jonas said, she contacted Victor Insanally of Guyenterprise about the possibility of publishing the book and through the sponsorship of GT&T, it became a reality. The book will be available to students across the country for $200.
Jonas urged that both students and teachers take advantage of the opportunity, as she opined that the efforts will be reflected in the exams. “So we offer it with love and hope that it will be received with enthusiasm by the students,” she said.
Insanally, who also spoke at the handing over ceremony, said the study guide is a prelude to the restarting of the GT&T sponsored “Know Your Stuff” series on the Guyana Learning Channel. He opined that the success of the series was evident in the last two years of Caribbean Examination Council English ‘B’ examination. Leslyn Edwards Charles, Assistant Chief Education officer at the Education Ministry, thanked Dr Jonas for writing the study guide.
One thousand copies of the study guide were printed and an exercise will done to ensure that students across the country have access to the material. In addition, $100 from each guide sold will be used by the publishers to in aid of more copies being published.
