PM urges all stakeholders to get involved in education process

GINA, GUYANA, Monday, August 22, 2016

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo is calling on all stakeholders in the education sector to play their part to improve and enhance the delivery of education, to yield better results.

The First Vice President was at the time addressing residents, youths and parents of La Penitence, Georgetown at an award ceremony yesterday, for the students who were successful at the recent National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations. The Prime Minister and his wife, Mrs. Sita Nagamootoo were guests of honour at the ceremony.

The Prime Minister urged everyone to play a greater role and work harder especially in English Language.

“Many of our children fail, 50 percent fail Mathematics, only 38 percent passed English, we are an English speaking country and less than half of the children who go to write the CSEC exams they don’t pass English, that is a sad story for our country and it shows that we need to work harder, the teachers and parents to get their children to read,” Prime Minister Nagamootoo urged.

Additionally, the Prime Minister said that formal education is good, but children must  develop a healthy mind and body.  “They must learn to do physical education in schools, they must learn music, they must learn to do the arts, they must learn languages because we are surrounded by countries that speak different languages,” he said.

The Prime Minister congratulated the teachers for preparing the students for the exams, and expressed the view that more children are today involved in computer games. This trend needs to change if they are to perform better at national and regional examinations.

Mrs. Sita Nagamootoo, a teacher by profession, encouraged the parents to ensure that their children read as much as possible. The teachers were also encouraged to pay attention to those slow learners.

“I know sometimes the students are not happy being in the classroom and very often it is not because the classwork is so difficult. Sometimes you come into the classroom with other difficulties, so to the teachers, I ask you to pay special attention to that aspect, that you know sometimes children will do negative things to get our attention, so you need to have everything focused on the children in your classroom.”

This is the first time a motivational activity was held in La Penitence by the Influential Millennial Youth Group as a way of encouraging students to stay in school. Founder of the group, Nikisha Allen told GINA that she intends to continue this activity yearly.