Feedback from stakeholders important to transforming Guyana’s Education system – Minister Manickchand

The Ministry of Education continued its national consultation exercise at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).

Yesterday, the Ministry engaged the migrant and re-migrant parents and children of Region Three at the Leonora Secondary School.

While at the ACCC today, the Honourable Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand told participants that the consultation exercise is important to the Ministry.

She said that countries around the world particularly member states of the United Nations are engaged in consulting in and around recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and how the sector can be re-imagined generally.

Minister Manickchand said that the pandemic has affected the sector tremendously. She said that COVID taught the world that no education system was resilient enough to withstand the impact of such a pandemic.

“The most developed countries found themselves unprepared to move into any kind of learning effectively”, Minister Manickchand noted.

Participants in today’s exercise were drawn from various organizations and government agencies.

Minister Manickchand said that the intention is to hear from the representatives from an institutional standpoint as well as their individual perspectives. She said that the consultative process is important to hear from the various stakeholders of how the sector can move forward.

Director of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Mrs. Quenita Walrond-Lewis said that this consultative exercise that is being held across the country is expected to address activities in five critical areas. These areas are:

1. Inclusive, equitable, safe and healthy schools

2. Learning and skills for life, work and sustainable development

3. Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession

4. Digital learning and transformation

5. Financing of education

She said that these areas are all framed around the five pillars of the Ministry’s Strategic Plan 2021-2025.

Chief Education Officer, Dr. Marcel Hutson said that innovation and creativity must be brought sharply into focus if the sector is to be transformed. He added that all stakeholders must work as a team in order to achieve the transformation necessary for the sector to move forward. He said that the concept of synergy cannot be overlooked.