Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
Partnership crucial to improved Education sector – Baksh
Some of the parents at yesterday’s symposium
The need for partnership is especially crucial if the education sector is to realise its full potential when it comes to the delivery of education.
This notion was emphasised yesterday by Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh, as he addressed a Parent Symposium at the Guyana International Conference Centre.
The forum, which was held in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), came as part of the activities streamlined for the observance of Education Month. September is designated Education Month and this year it is being observed under the theme ‘Child-Friendly homes: Child-friendly classrooms – quality education’.
According to Baksh, the Ministry has over the past three years been earnestly appealing for partners to help improve the education system.
“All partners must come onboard and we have been appealing for that to happen over and over and we have intensified that call…”
And it is the intent of the Ministry to further its call for partnership even as education month is observed, the Minister noted. He pointed to the fact that the overall aim and objective of the education system is to improve education learning outcomes, adding that “we would have failed if we do not improve education of all children of Guyana. Not a single child must be left out and this is the big challenge facing the education sector.”
Although the results from all the assessments and examinations reflect that there are some exceptional students that deserved to be recognised, Minister Baksh warned that the others must not be neglected.
“We forget the thousands who may not be performing as expected…”
For this reason, he said that the Ministry has had some introspective analyses of what is happening in order to devise strategies to improve the educational outcome of all children of Guyana. The essential goal of the education system, he said, is to ensure that children leave the education system literate, numerate and with the capability to pursue life-long learning, thereby being able to advance their education agenda beyond the secondary level.
“They can go on to university and even post-university. They can enrich themselves both intellectually and financially and contribute to their country,” Baksh stressed.
In the quest to improve the system, the Education Ministry has facilitated the construction of several new school buildings across the country and a significant amount of resources have been plugged into the system, the minister asserted. But even in this intense mode, the sector has not been able to realise its expected potential.
“Things have been improving at all levels over the last three years, don’t get me wrong. If you look at the statistics there has been an incremental improvement perhaps not a quantum leap as we want, but things have been improving, especially I must say, at the secondary level.”
The Ministry has also been looking at the quality of its teachers, according to Baksh, who expressed his conviction, that quality teachers equal quality education.
Further, the Ministry has been setting up various units and has been emphasising the importance of leadership within the school system. However the kind of progress that is expected is still being hindered, as according to Baksh, the Ministry’s analyses have shown that an important institution has been left out.
The Minister was alluding to parents, some of whom, he believes are not fully involved in the educational upbringing of their children.
“In many, many communities I have found that parents are not onboard, and this is evident from the high rate of absenteeism of children. We only have in some regions 77 percent attendance rates. This is not good enough.”
According to the Minister, the Ministry has as part of its strategic plan to exceed 90 percent attendance rate in the school system. It was for this very reason, he disclosed, that a parents’ symposium was seen as essential to solicit their support in helping to further boost the efforts of the Ministry, and by extension, improve the performance of students.
Yesterday forum also saw remarks being made by motivational speakers Ms Beverly Chan, Executive Director of the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, Ms Grace Brumell, Literacy Coordinator and Coordinator of Parent Skills Education Programme, Ms Eranie Yaw.
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