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Education sector secures further US$20M grant
The education sector is expected to benefit from a US$20.5 M grant, which was solicited by Education Minister, Shaik Baksh, during a recent trip to Paris where he attended the Education For All Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) meeting last week.
At a press conference on Monday, the Minister disclosed that during the meeting he presented the education sector’s five-year strategic plan, which prominently features health and nutrition.
According to him, the focus on health and nutrition indicates the concern that the Ministry has for the safety and wellbeing of students.
Minister Shaik Baksh
It was also in relation to health issues, the Minister said, that all schools were designated no smoking zones.
For this reason, the Minister speculated that the 2008-2013 education strategic plan was praised by the international community, thus the plan was accepted, paving the way for Guyana to be in receipt of a full three-year tranche of the funding.
Guyana, unlike most of the 35 endorsed countries, has attained the goal of universal primary education. Many of the countries, particularly those in Africa, have a 60 per cent attainment rate. Guyana has almost total universal primary education, even higher than some Caribbean countries where the rate is about 90 per cent.
He said that the grant was made available through a 14-member consortium of donors which the EFA-FTI represents. Among the donors were the United States, Canada, Russia, France, and Japan.
Previously, the education sector was afforded funding to the tune of US$4 million annually for the FTI initiative for three years.
According to Minister Baksh, most of the funding will be used to upgrade the delivery of education, teachers’ houses, school feeding programmes, sanitation facilities, general utility upgrades, resource materials, learning resources centre and technical vocational programmes.
More learning centres and technical institutes are to be constructed.
The Minister pointed out that the ruling administration has been very concerned over the years and right now will direct attention to the improvement of the learning environment.
Moreover, Minister Baksh emphasised that the plans are intended to meet the quality imperative to better the current status of the local education system, adding that the additional funding will serve well to help the Ministry achieve its goal and objectives.
The Minister revealed that a special unit has been set-up within the Ministry and has been doing an excellent job in executing and implementing components of the programme.
Accordingly, he said that the work of the unit came in for high praise during the recent meeting by the international community.
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