Region 6 has new Education Officer

Aug 22, 2013 News

A new Regional Education Officer in Region Six has been appointed. Ms. Valika Mohabir Jaikishun has replaced Mrs. Shafiran Bhajan, who has given more than nine years service to the region as REdo.
Kaieteur News understands that Mrs Bhajan is tipped to be an Adviser to the Minister of Education, Mrs. Priya Manickchand.
Region Six Chairman, Mr. David Armogan announced that the incoming education officer will be acting for a while in the capacity until a confirmation can be secured.

Regional Education Officer Mrs Bhajan

“That person will be acting for a period of time before they can be confirmed. The system is there and once that person is serious enough…and of course, we will have to ensure that the system continues to operate at a high level.”
He stated that Mrs. Bhajan has served her time.
“She has given quite a number of years, beyond the normal 55 years limit that most people are subjected to.”
The Regional Chairman believes that the former Education Officer has “done a good job with respect to keeping the education system in tact in terms of ensuring that the standards are maintained and kept. But there comes a time when, regardless of how good you are and how well you have done, you have to make way to younger people.”
Meanwhile, Armogan added that he was displeased with the region’s results at this year’s National Grade Six Exams.
“I am not fully satisfied with the results I have seen. Almost 31 per cent of the students have done poorly in my opinion. Because if you have less than 350 marks in the NGSA, I would consider that to be extremely poor and that accounts for 31 per cent of our students.”
The Chairman is urging that a “lot more work” be done in the primary schools across the region in order to reverse the decline.
“One of the things we find in the primary school system, too, is that we have a lot of teachers going to university at Tain, and a lot of those classes are held during the day at the primary level. It is affecting more than the secondary, because at the secondary level, you can adjust your time- table to suit those teachers.”
“At the primary school levels, because teachers are allocated whole classes to man by themselves throughout the academic year, it is difficult to adjust…so once that teacher is absent two, three times for the week, it means those students in those classes, will be at a disadvantage, because they will not be able to complete the syllabus and that is one of the things we will have to look at during the new school year.”
He added that something has to be done at the Ministry of Education, “because we either need additional teachers, or there must be some sort of policy shift in this direction because we cannot continue to have these teachers absenting two, three times a week, during the day when they should be in the classroom giving work and supervising and teaching the children in the school.”
According to Armogan, there are programmes to address the low-performing secondary schools in Berbice.
“We are running a six-year programme. Schools like the Port Mourant Secondary, Manchester Secondary, and Black Bush Polder Secondary are piloting the programme. Students coming into the schools who have reading and writing difficulties will undergo rigorous work; bringing them at a level at which Form One students at the secondary levels should be at. So, instead of taking five years at those schools, those students are spending six years.”
(Leon Suseran)