Though elated that Spanish will be compulsory in schools come September, Education Minister Priya Manickchand says that support is being sought from Cuba and Mexico to help teach the language.
“We are creating materials through NCERD, through our materials production unit that will help us in the absence of a trained Spanish teacher to certain levels in the primary school, in relation to secondary more than 80% of our schools will be able to do Spanish, however we are trying to work with some of our partners like Cuba and Mexico to see if we can get trained teachers, while we train ours”, Manickchand told journalists.
She was speaking on the sidelines of the swearing in on Wednesday of the Commission of Inquiry into the Mahdia dormitory fire.
As questions were raised about the Ministry of Education’s capacity to execute such a vision, considering the fact that some schools have insufficient Spanish teachers, President Irfaan Ali recently at a press briefing also hinted at the possibility of importing teachers from other countries but didn’t say from where.
“As of September, Spanish will be compulsory in our primary school curriculum… I have been told we have adequate capability especially at the secondary level to have this compulsory Spanish taught and we have engaged a number of bilateral partners to loan us human resource assets in this period of transition,” he said.
Manickchand on Wednesday also said that through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programme, advanced level courses in Spanish will be offered to teachers and trained teachers at the Cyril Potter College of Education.
She admitted that while there may be a deficit of Spanish teachers her administration is continuously working to train more teachers.
When asked if rehiring retired teachers would be a recourse to complement the deficit of Spanish teachers Manickchand said “that is something our ministry always does, retired teachers who can still served are offered positions and the same goes for Spanish it would not be anyway different”.
The Education Minister told Stabroek News that every effort will be made to have a wider percentage of the student population gain access to Spanish lessons and teachers
She added that the ministry through its Learning Channel has also been airing daily Spanish lessons. Manickchand stated that those who participated in Spanish classes, and practiced at least 15-20 minutes a day should have been proficient by now.
