Latest update September 4th, 2026 10:24 AM
Teachers paying $38,000 for netbooks
A batch of trainee teachers was asked to pay $38,000 for netbooks they received, the Education Minister has clarified.
Parliamentarian Vanessa Kissoon said, she believed that the teachers would be entitled to free netbooks as part of an arrangement under the One Laptop Per Family programme.
However, Education Minister Priya Manickchand has pointed out that a batch of students of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) in 2011 paid $38,000 for netbook computers as per an agreement between the Government of Guyana and the World Bank.
The netbooks were handed out under an arrangement between the World Bank and the Guyana Government under the Guyana Improving Teacher Education Project (GITEP). The project is aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of quality teacher education.
Minister Manickchand quoted page 25 of the project’s operational manual which states, that the cost will be shared for the procurement of the netbooks for the first year by- Distance Education (DE) students and DE tutors and lecturers at CPCE and the University of Guyana.
Tota Mangar, head of GITEP, explained that under the arrangements with the World Bank, the teachers had to pay half of the cost of the netbooks.
Minister Manickchand said that in September 2011, upon payment of the agreed sum of $38,000, students who entered the college received their netbooks; while staff members paid $40,000.
Additionally, Government made available netbooks for the 2010-2012 batch of students who graduated from the Associate Degree in Education (ADE) programme. In this regard, a total of 219 netbooks were provided free of cost, she stated.
Thus far, 165 teachers have uplifted their netbooks. The two remaining centers in Georgetown and Linden, which are slated to receive 11 and 43 respectively, have been notified but to date, have not collected theirs.
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