Every child in school

Sep 25, 2016 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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A child’s education begins long before birth. It is said: “The proper time to influence the character of a child is about one hundred years before he is born.”
Anglican Dean, William Ralph Inge, the author of this aphorism, meant that the quality of a child’s education is not the result of a sudden event, a short experience or a swift encounter. It is rooted in the values inculcated in that child by her or his parents and grandparents and distilled through decades.
The school is essential. The teacher is vital. The best education, however, starts in the home. The family is fundamental to life-long learning. It is in the home, under the protective watchfulness of parents – especially of mothers who are the child-bearers, child-rearers and child-carers – that education commences and continues.
The Ghanaian educator, James Emmanuel Kwegyir-Aggrey, reminds us of the Fanti proverb: “If you educate a man, you educate an individual but, if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.” We respect our mothers who are our first teachers; we respect girls who will also become wives and mothers and who will teach their children as they have been taught.
Every Guyanese child has a right to education. Education is an entitlement. The benefits of that entitlement can be obtained only if every child has access to primary and secondary education, only if that child attends school and only if that child attains the ultimate objectives of education by completing his or her schooling.
The State has theresponsibility, in accordance with the Constitutionof the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,which prescribes: “…It is the duty of the State to provide education that would include curricula designed to reflect the cultural diversities of Guyana and disciplines that are necessary to prepare students to deal with social issues and to meet the challenges of the modern technological age.”
Education is a public good. Society must participate in the promotion of thatpublic good. Parents, teachers and members of societyought to combine their efforts to ensure that every child attends and remains in school until she or he is ready to graduate.
Guyana’s education policy must ensure that every child can and does go to school. The Ministry’s mandate, the Ministry’s mission and the Ministry’s motto, must be: ‘Every-child-in-school’.
Every Guyanese child must become an ‘A’ student. This means that every child must be assured of access to school, must be enabled to attend school and be equipped with the knowledge to attain a satisfactory standard of education.
Access to education means that sufficient institutions of learning are available and are equipped to impart quality education to all, including the visually and physically challenged.
The State is committed, within its means, to ensuring that there are sufficient schools in the country. The State is committed, also, to ensuring that these schools provide a suitable environment for effective teaching and learning.
The State will expedite the repairs, renovation and rehabilitation of old schools and embark on the construction of new schools. These investments are aimed at ending the practice of parents’ having to protest the overcrowding and physical conditions at some schools.
The State should aim at ensuring that every school has sufficient qualified teachers capable of delivering a high standard of education. The objective is to ensure that, as soon as possible, every teacher should be a university graduate.
The State should ensure that schools become pleasant places which are conducive to effective learning. Schools must be well ventilated, be endowed with adequate space, comfortable furniture, sanitary facilities and potable water. Every school, eventually, must aim at having an administrative office, assembly room, dining hall, gymnasium, library, recreational ground and fully functional science and computer laboratories.
Every school must aim at embracing our national ‘green agenda’ of planting gardens and trees, of generating energy for electricity from solar or wind sources and for the safe disposal of solid waste.
Every Guyanese child should aim at attending school regularly. The ‘Every-child-in-school’ policy means that the state and society have a duty to ensure that every child can attend school.
Attendance at school is related to higher academic performance and a deeper sense of self-discipline. Children who absent themselves from school often find it difficult to keep abreast with their studies and with their peers.
Guyana cannot become an ‘education nation’ when 4,000 students drop-out of our primary and secondary schools each year. The State will continue to help mothers to acquire uniforms, transportation and mealsto help them to send their children to school.
Long distances, especially in some riverine communities, can be a disincentive. Children who have to paddle for hours or walk several kilometres will be too tired to study when they reach school and will be too tired to do their homework when they reach home.
The State – by providing bicycles, boats and buses – aims at making attendance affordable and comfortable. The State, by providing parents with uniforms and footwear will ensure that children are dressed respectably. The State, by providing daily hot meals will ensure that children can concentrate on their studies.
Attainment means completing one’s studies and graduating with qualifications and certification which would allow students to enter the world of work as adults. The ‘Every-child-in-school’ policymust result in higher levels of educational attainment.
Every Guyanese child should graduate from school with the knowledge, skills and values that would allow her or him to advance to higher education or to secure regular and remunerative employment.
Every Guyanese child should aim at completion of her or his studies and atleaving school with the confirmation, verification and qualification which prove that schooldays were not wasted.
Students must have the assurance that, when they graduate, they can employ themselves or that they can satisfy the needs of our industries and will be able to contribute to making Guyana a better place in which to live.
The foundation on which an education nation will be erected is laid in the home. It is built on satisfying occupation in the office, at the factory or on the farm or other workplace. The school is the pathway between the home and the world of work.
The Every-child-in-school’ policy means that we are investing in the future and that we are closer to ensuring ‘a good life for all Guyanese’.

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