Schools curriculum under review

Nov 15, 2018 News

as efforts being made to improve of quality education

The Canadian facilitators

“Every child can learn and every child must learn.”
This was the assertion of Chief Education Officer [CEO], Mr. Marcel Hutson, as he addressed the opening of a three-day curriculum writing workshop yesterday at the Regency Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown.
The forum is aimed at facilitating a review of schools curriculum with a view of improving the quality of education delivered across the levels.
The workshop saw participation from representatives of the Cyril Potter College of Education, the University of Guyana, and other education officials from throughout the 11 education districts. The wide cross-section of participants was warranted at the workshop, since its primary aim is to ensure that measures are put in place to improve the teaching/learning process in the public school system.
CEO Hutson shared his expectation that at the end of the workshop, a curriculum document will be prepared that is tailored towards the specific needs and experiences of all the nation’s children.
“Every child has something that we can extract from them,” he assured, even as he stressed the need for educators to have a mindset that will help to achieve the intended objective.
According to Hutson, systems are built and improved when stakeholders have the mindset to assist the development process. This approach, he said, is needed for the local education system to move forward.
“We have to change the way that we operate, the way we look at education. We must be facilitators and creators of learning, and we have to see ourselves as facilitators… therefore, when we complete our job, people will fulfill their potential and rise above the fray,” the CEO said.
Hutson in his deliberations yesterday, too, said that it is disappointing sometimes to hear some children being referred to as “dunces” by some of the very persons tasked with educating them. But the CEO believes that “as educators it is imperative that different concepts and methodologies be utilized to bring about learning.”
A former teacher himself, Hutson said that it is no secret that every child learns at a different rate based on their own circumstances and sometimes other social issues can hinder this process as well.
It was against this background that the CEO noted that he is optimistic about the curriculum review process that the Education Ministry has embarked upon. According to Hutson, at the end of such an undertaking, he is confident that Guyana’s education system will be in a much better place.
Tasked with facilitating the workshop are representatives of Mind Bloom Consulting, a Canadian company with a proven track record in such areas. Assisting the facilitation process in conjunction Mind Bloom Consulting is the St Francis Xavier University of Canada.
The objective of the workshop essentially includes efforts to familiarize curriculum writers with a framework. It is also intended to introduce the writers to the curriculum-writing process and to develop a detailed writing schedule for the nursery, primary and early secondary levels which includes subject integration. Moreover, the current curriculum revision will target from nursery to grade nine at the secondary level. Currently grades 10 and 11 utilize syllabuses provide by the Caribbean Examinations Council.
The curriculum revision process is part of the Guyana Education Sector Improvement Project [GESIP] programme, aimed at improving the quality of education nationally.

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