The Guyana Government and the IDB yesterday clinched a US$90m loan deal which will see the upgrading of at least 19 primary schools and the building of six new ones.
On the margins of the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank’s (IDB’s ) Twelfth Annual Consulta-tions with Caribbean Governors which opened yesterday at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown, Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh and visiting IDB President Ilan Goldfajn signed the deal.
A release from the Ministry of Finance said that the US$90m is the first approved tranche of a Conditional Credit Line for Investment Projects (CCLIP) up to the amount of US$150m under which individual loan operations will be processed.
The Project’s general objectives are to contribute to the development of the human capital needed to manage and drive economic growth and diversification, expand and improve access to safe and improv-ed learning environments in selected schools as well as broaden and improve educational services for vulnerable students.
This investment will support the upgrading of at least nineteen existing primary schools and the construction of six new ones. It also allows for improvement in the learning environment by integrating digital technologies at these schools, benefiting over 8,000 primary education students and their communities.
The newly constructed schools will provide an additional 2,610 new primary education spaces, while at least 7,341 students and 352 teachers from Grades 2 – 6 will receive digital devices, the release said.
Also signed yesterday was a grant agreement for US$5 million from the IDB to aid in the transformation of the education sector through the Strengthening of Instruc-tional Leadership at District and School Levels.
The general objective of the programme is to contribute to improved quality, equitable participation, and achievement in basic education for the sustainable development of Guyana. Specific objectives are to improve: (i) strengthen school and district leadership; and (ii) improve sector management. Through this initiative, a Leadership Academy will be established, supporting continuous training and professional development of educators.
The release said that to this end, 200 educational leaders, including practicing and aspiring district and school leaders, Regional Education Offi-cers (REdOs) and Ministry of Education officials will receive orientation and guidance on their roles and responsibilities to become culturally responsive and instructionally effective leaders.
In the IDB Group Coun-try Strategy with Guyana for 2023 to 2026, it was stated that Guyana has achieved good and equitable levels of school enrolment in pre-primary and primary levels but records lower enrolment in secondary and tertiary levels.
It said that to date, the country has increased its gross enrolment rate at the pre-primary level from 95 percent in 2015 to 115 percent in 2018. At the subnational level, the Strategy said that only Region 1 presents a rate below 100 percent (84 percent). The net enrolment rate in primary education is 92 percent, with no differences between boys and girls (92.7 and 91.5 percent respectively). Completion of primary education is also high: 93 percent of children entering the first grade of primary school eventually complete the last grade, the Strategy added.
Significant differences
“However, in secondary education, the net enrolment rate falls to 61 percent and presents significant differences in enrolment by sex, with 59 percent for males and 65.6 percent for females. In terms of tertiary education participation, the country records a 16.9 percent gross attendance rate compared to 42 percent in the LAC (Latin American and Caribbean) region (CIMA, 2017). Notwithstanding, the literacy rate among young people (aged 15–25) is high: 98 percent for women and 97.7 percent for men (MICS, 2014)”, the Strategy said.
It added that one of the main challenges of the Guyanese education system is providing the same learning opportunities to all students.
“The results from both national and regional assessments show that learning outcomes differ among student groups by region, with students from coastal areas scoring higher than students from the Hinterland. In addition, girls consistently perform better than boys. In the National Grade Six Assessment, student performance improved in mathematics across all regions over time; nevertheless, the majority of students continue to do poorly in math, as well as science and social studies. Over the last five years, the proportion of students gaining passes in the assessment has notably improved. However, more than 50 percent of students still do not pass (i.e., attain 50 percent and above) in some core subjects”, the Strategy said.
Regional differences in test scores are significant, the Strategy said. It noted that 42 percent of students in the coastal areas scored above 50 percent, compared with only 18 percent of students in the Hinterland.
“In 2019, only 48 percent of students in riverine areas and only 36 percent in the Hinterland achieved the Ministry of Education standards (defined as achievement of at least 30 out of 60 points) in English, compared with 61 percent of 6th graders in the coastal areas”, the Strategy said.
Regionally, it added that Guyana performs below neighbouring Caribbean countries.
“Based on historic data from CSEC’s results from 2007 to 2015, analyses and conclusion can be drawn by comparing Guyana’s student achievement with the rest of the Caribbean region. These results show that Guyana has the lowest percentage of passing rates in both math and English when compared to neighbors such as Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. However, since 2007, Guyana has consistently shown an increase in the percentage of students who passed the CSEC in math, reporting 50 percent in 2018. Moreover, Guyana has consistently made the most improvement in passing rates in English compared to its Caribbean neighbors, increasing from 44 percent in 2013 to nearly 70 percent in 2018. Despite this progress, further improvements are needed”, the Strategy asserted.
More support services, it said, are required for students at risk.
“There are 1,740 immigrant students in the school system, mostly from Venezuela. They lag in learning as they are not proficient in English, and the system has few qualified teachers and materials to teach English as a second language. In addition, young students in remote schools are not systematically screened for hearing and eyesight problems: undetected, these problems often contribute to learning difficulties”, the Strategy added.
