Investing in an education nation

Aug 16, 2015 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

In the 2015 estimates presented to the National Assembly on 10th August, by the Minister of Finance Mr. Winston Jordan, $33 million dollars or 14.9% of the national budget is allocated towards education. This represents the largest single line item in the entire budget, and is in keeping with our commitment to making Guyana an education nation.
President David Granger has long held the view that the single biggest problem which has dire implications for the future of our nation is our broken education system.
In a charge to graduates of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) on Tuesday 18th December 2012, Brigadier Granger said, “education is an entitlement. Primary education has been compulsory in Guyana for 136 years. Article 27 of the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana states: ‘every citizen has the right to free education from nursery to university…’ Teachers now have an obligation to ensure that education reaches those who can least help themselves – the nation’s children. Teachers must embrace a professional culture – one that imparts a first-class education and one that respects the personal worth of each child…”
We believe that our teachers are integral to the reform of Guyana’s education system. The Partnership is of the view that in order to achieve the level of skills necessary to develop a competent workforce, the starting point is the teacher.
In his charge to the graduates of the CPCE almost three years ago the leader of APNU noted that: “Guyana today is a country of bright prospects, but also one of colossal complexity. A field of unprecedented opportunities lies before you. The opportunity for engineers to build bridges and roads to open our vast hinterland and to develop schemes to exploit our hydro-electrical potential; the opportunity for geologists to develop our bauxite, diamond, gold, manganese and quarrying resources; the opportunities for biologists, botanists, zoologists and agriculturists to expand food production; the opportunity to improve communication and human learning; the opportunity for manufacturers, shippers, builders to drive our economy forward at a faster rate.
These opportunities cannot be achieved by ignorant people or the illiterate. They cannot be achieved while so many primary school children cannot qualify to enter secondary school or when thousands of children drop-out of school every year. They can only be achieved by people with a first class education. They can be achieved only by the creation of an ‘education nation’ that brings all our people together in a knowledge society.”
In the 2015 estimates, $1.7 billion has been budgeted for the procurement of 9,609 laptops, which are to be distributed to educators, students, institutions of learning and community-based organizations. We are cognisant that ours is a knowledge-based society, and Guyana cannot afford to be left behind in the communication and information revolution that is sweeping the World.
Our teachers must be certified and competent information technology users. Every school must have fully functional computer labs, so students from Aishalton to Ann’s Grove, Lethem to Linden can have access to the information super highway. With technology constantly evolving and information technology embracing all aspects of our lives, it is important that our students receive their education in a first world learning environment, from first class teachers.
A Partnership for National Unity supports a plan – the Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment. That Plan will: “ ensure that every primary school child starts the school day with a healthy breakfast at school; “ ensure that no child is prevented from attending school because of parental poverty; “ ensure that every primary school child is transported to school by boat or bus; and, “ reward every family that keeps its children in school.
APNU applauds the commitment to education in the 2015 budget by the new coalition government. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration, for more than two decades, badly damaged the national primary education system. More than 50 per cent of children at the National Grade Six Assessment fail all four subjects; sixty per cent of children in grades 2 to 4 cannot recognise or read a single word and 40 per cent of nursery, primary and secondary school teachers remain untrained. This investment in education is a step in the right direction to reverse the previous trend.

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Investing in an education nation

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