Improvement in education programmes keeps pace with Strategic Plan

Jun 24, 2010 News

---

One of the fundamental principles underlying the vision of the Ministry of Education’s strategic plan is to address the quality of education that is being provided to both teachers and students.
This is according to Director of the National Centre for Educational Resources Development (NCERD), Mohandat Goolsaran, who recently revealed that as part of this effort, plans are apace to expand the non-graduate certificate programme in the area of English and Mathematics.
As a measure to address poor results in the subject areas of Mathematics and English at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level in the public school system, the non-graduate certificate course programme for teachers was introduced. The first batch of teachers participating in the programme graduated just last week.
However, Goolsaran has revealed that the non-graduate programme is now designed to include Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Information and Technology and Special Education needs. All of the courses are for a duration of 18 months.
According to Goolsaran persons have already been enrolled some of whom are almost quarter of the way through. “The area of Physics, Chemistry and Biology are more of a face-to-face mode than the distance mode because those are the areas where the teachers are required to do significant levels of practical laboratory work.
“Those persons will be at NCERD once per month going through tutorial sessions with Science tutors assigned to NCERD.”
And several television programmes, CDs and DVDs have been created to aid the exercise. In addition, he said that efforts are already in progress to establish a multi-media centre which will be responsible for all of the media production for education.
And persons are already being recruited for this centre, according to Goolsaran.
He revealed that a Special Education Unit has been established to deal with children with difficult circumstances, both physical and mental. He noted that special programmes are developed in special need schools to help the academic development of children varying disabilities.
And to address the issue of technology education the Ministry has appointed a National Coordinator for Science and Technology. That person, according to Goolsaran, is responsible for overseeing the range of training programmes that the Ministry has, all the way from nursery all the way to Technical Vocational Schools and the Teachers Training College.
This move is crucial, Goolsaran said, in keeping with national guidelines which are encompassed in the strategic plan.
As part of the Ministry’s strategic plan a monitoring and evaluation unit has been put in place to monitor the implementation and the attainment of certain goals outlined by the Education Sector’s Strategic Plan.
And parts of the plan, which is geared at working towards improving the delivery of education over a five-year period (2008-2013), have already been put in place according to Education Minister, Shaik Baksh.
The Strategic Plan addresses the “bigger goals” of the education sector, he disclosed, including areas such as literacy, school health and nutrition as well as the assessment systems.
Accordingly, Baksh has disclosed that the Ministry will commence a review to determine how much progress has been made since the plan was implemented. Baksh revealed that all departments of the Ministry have already submitted work plans and action plans, which according to him details how they will achieve certain goals of the plan.
It was early last year that the Minister had announced that the strategic plan was accepted by Cabinet and the donor community. With funding from government and a whopping $20.5M grant through the Education For All Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) it is anticipated that the goals of the plan will be reached within the specified timeframe.
Minister Baksh had revealed previously that it was during his attendance to an EFA-FTI meeting in Paris that he was able to solicit the much needed grant. In accepting the details of the plan, the Minister said that the donors paved the way for Guyana to be in receipt of a full three-year tranche of funding which will be made available overtime.
And according to the Minister, previously the education sector was afforded annual funding for the FTI initiative for three years, most of which have been used for upgrading of education including the delivery of education, teachers’ houses, school feeding programmes, sanitation facilities, general utility upgrades, resource materials, and learning resource centres.
He had noted last year, too, that the plan will feature health and nutrition prominently which indicates the Ministry’s intent to address the safety and wellbeing of students. The objective of universal secondary education is also expected to be reached through the plan.
And according to the Minister the ruling administration has been very much concerned over the years and right now will direct immense attention to the improvement of the education sector.
He emphasised that the plan is intended to better the current status of the local education system, adding that the additional funding will eventually be afforded.  He explained though that over the period of the plan the government will have to look at its priority.
During the past year, the Minister acknowledged that the government had been very committed to the education sector which was evident by the allocation of the highest percentage of the budget to the Education Sector, adding that on a regional basis Guyana is at the top of the league in this regard.
According to him of the statistics of the most recent educational global monitoring report, Guyana is at the top in terms of expenditure on education, even as he noted that every effort must be engaged to ensure that there is greater value for money in the education system.

---

---