Dedicated educators and greening the nation’s classrooms

Jun 05, 2016 News

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By Sharmain Grainger

It has been said time and again that in order for a country to succeed, the education sector has to play a crucial role. This, of course, is true too for our dear land of Guyana.
Moreover, it has long been recognized that the success of the education sector is imperative if national development is to be realised.
The need for success within the sector was during the past week emphasized by Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine. In fact he made it quite pellucid that “for everything else to succeed, we (the education sector) have to succeed.”
The Minister’s utterance was forthcoming as he addressed a gathering of educators who occupied the auditorium of the National Cultural Centre.
The occasion was a ceremony to honour 50 educators who have helped in the past or are currently helping to bolster the efforts of the education sector.
While rewarding 50 educators was significant, since it was intended to be part of the 50th independence celebrations, we cannot for a moment run away with the idea that it was only these individuals who helped realised the gains made in the sector. But at the same time, we should not try to diminish the contributions the chosen educators made. Certainly theirs would have had to have been laudable enough to make them deserving of rewards.
But I’m convinced that it couldn’t have been an easy task to select 50 educators out of a pool of thousands and label them as the best. There must have been many who were unavoidably overlooked. That is, however, a matter for those within the sector to ponder on; after all, an educator with laudable qualities will continue to perform admirably with or without reward or public recognition, and I salute them all.
However, advancing the efforts already made in the sector would not only require dedicated educators, but a curriculum review is being touted as just as important.
Based on recent disclosures of the Minister, a review is intended to not only ensure that the central items such as literacy, numeracy and the sciences are keenly addressed, but rather, he sees as equally important the “greening” of the nation’s classrooms.
“I want to green our classrooms,” Minister Roopnaraine proudly declared at the recent ceremony. But he didn’t flaunt the green notion as his own idea. Like so many other Ministers of Government, he credited President David Granger with touting the idea for the sector which falls under his purview.
According to the Education Minister, President Granger has been talking about a green economy and a green Guyana but according to Dr. Roopnaraine “we can only green Guyana if we green our classrooms.”
A green economy is defined as an economy that aims at reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and is one that aims for sustainable development without degrading the environment.
Essentially, the Minister preached that the green notion must first start within the school system if it is to truly materialise. Achieving this goal, according to him, “means that we would have to elevate climate change, climate literacy and environmental literacy…”
“Some work is being done, of this I have been assured,” said Minister Roopnaraine as he added that “I believe that we need to give climate change education a more central place in our teaching because it is only there, right at the beginning, that we are going to be able to, in effect, develop a population that is in harmony with what we are attempting to do.”
The “greening” venture is certainly poised for support, some of which has already been forthcoming. For instance, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is a specialized agency of the United Nations, has already put out some programmes for what they call climate change education for sustainable development.
What UNESCO is seeking to embrace with the programmes is that climate change education should be a more visible and central part of our global response to climate change.
The Minister, quite understandably, seems excited about what the UNESCO, a partner of the education sector, has to offer.
“We need to enhance and intensify the programme in the classroom to increase climate literacy among young people, and UNESCO sees the way that we can do this is by encouraging innovative approaches that would integrate climate change into the school,” the Minister informed last week.
He recalled that even at the annual UN spearheaded Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris France last year end, the greening issue was the primary focus.
“The environment is on people’s minds,” said Dr Roopnaraine as he spoke of COP21 which, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, sought to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.
Given the intricacies that could go along with the “greening” venture, Minister Roopnaraine spoke of the need to “build networks and we need to understand the work of greening the classroom and greening Guyana. It is going to be the most important work we can do in the years to come”.
Even as he considers the task ahead for his educators, the Minister keenly observed that “there is no profession that calls for a higher level of commitment…all other professionals need the expertise of teachers.”
“I believe that our work in the classroom is the most crucial one,” he added, while pointing out that teachers and Education officials alike must recognise the importance of the work of the Ministry, since effectively it is tasked with helping to guarantee the future of Guyana.
“We can guarantee this by doing our work in the classroom,” said the Minister as he noted that “we are not going to achieve what we need to achieve in terms of development in the years to come without an educated population. This is the essence of what the president has been saying”.
Essentially the local education sector requires the efforts of educators who are aware that their contributions are important to realize an educated population that can help fast track the highly touted green economy.

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