The Ministry of Education with support from UNESCO yesterday opened a three-day implementation workshop for the recently completed National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy.
The workshop aims to instruct its participants on how to use a monitoring and evaluating approach in the implementation of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy. It will see the participants who include members of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Council, the Bureau of Statistics, University of Guyana, ministries of Agriculture, Education, Finance, Natural Resources and the Environment and the private sector being educated on the national policy and its linkage to a number of indicators by the two UNESCO facilitators Martin Schaaper and Ernesto Fernandez Polcuch.
Noting that the organisations involved are seeking to monitor the implementation of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Director of NCERD Jennifer Cumberbatch stressed the importance of developing indicators to aid in that monitoring.
Inge Nathoo, Secretary General of the UNESCO National Commission, commended National Science Coordinator Petal Punalall-Jetoo on the proposal she submitted to UNESCO a year and a half ago which called for support in conducting a Gap Analysis Survey. This winning proposal, Nathoo said, caught the attention of UNESCO and allowed for this workshop to be realised.
Schaaper of UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics, one of the facilitators of the workshop, told those gathered, “You can only know if you are being effective if you are monitoring the policies.” He said, “UNESCO strongly believes in evidence-based policy,” and as such will introduce the participants to indicators which can be used to monitor policy implementation through an evidence-based scientific method.
Polcuch, senior programme specialist at the UNESCO Regional Office for Science in Latin America and the Caribbean, said that this initiative showed Guyana’s commitment to being involved in more evidence-based policy making. The policy document, he said, should be a living document as development targets are moving targets thus it is important that the policy is able to meet new targets and goals as development goals and approaches change.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand in her remarks acknowledged that the “weakest part of most policies is monitoring, evaluating and determining where we are mid-policy.” The new five-year strategy for educational development, which focuses largely on Science, Technology and Innovation, has, she said a strong focus on outlining indicators and how they can be met. This workshop therefore, according to Manickchand, comes at a great time in the structure of the ministry.
