Education Ministry launches campaign to put missing students back in classroom

Feb 25, 2022 News

Education Officers conducting outreach activities on Thursday for ‘Operation Recovery’ in Supenaam Creek, Essequibo Coast, Region Two

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Education has launched a campaign to find students who have missing from school and those who skipped the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) mock examination.

The campaign is dubbed ‘Operation Recovery’ and is targeting all 11 Education Districts. This move will see Education Officers from Central Ministry and within the Education Districts along with Regional officials and community activists fanning out into communities to locate these pupils, the Ministry of Education said in a press release. The exercise aims to ascertain the location of the students and the reasons behind their absenteeism so that a determination can be made about how the Ministry can assist these students with returning to school.
The scientific data gathered from countries around the world in numerous studies by varying organisations continue to show that the long school closures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to an increased rate of school dropouts and tremendous learning loss, unless countries take urgent, practical measures to mitigate against same. This will not only affect the academic attainment of young people but ultimately their economic and social development as they become adults.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that this generation of children and youth cannot afford any more disruptions to their education and predict that unless practical measures are taken urgently, this generation could lose more than 17 trillion dollars in earnings in their lifetime, have their academic growth stunted and their mental health severely affected.
The Ministry of Education remains committed to keeping school doors open and having as many of our pupils back in school and where students failed to come to school, to determine what needs they may have and to attempt to meet those needs. The Ministry believes firmly that urgent, practical, sustained measures such as teaching and learning from a consolidated curriculum, the provision of textbooks, re-training of teachers, using technology in the classroom and Operation Recovery will mitigate against the predicted loss to our students and country.
The Ministry warns that any individual or organisation that promotes the closure of schools or discourages parents from sending their children to school is doing harm to Guyana’s children and our country as a whole and encourages all stakeholders to be responsible during this time and to lend their support to this effort so that we can reach every pupil and give them the education they rightfully deserve.
A World Bank Report late last year had flagged Guyana for having one of the lowest levels of educational engagement in the region during the pandemic. Titled “An Uneven Recovery: the Impact of COVID-19 on Latin America and the Caribbean”, the Bank cited Guatemala, Guyana, and Belize, with only two-thirds of school-age children engaged in some form of education. Many countries are highly reliant on remote learning options to keep children engaged, such as Chile, Peru, Panama, and Ecuador, the Bank also said.
According to the report, most children are engaged in some form of educational activity in the region, although engagement levels (and quality) vary considerably across countries, ranging from 64 percent in Guatemala to 97 percent in Chile. In most countries, engagement rates (including in-person attendance and remote learning) are below pre-pandemic attendance levels. Region-wide, engagement in any education activities is below the pre-pandemic attendance rate.
This suggests severe learning losses and an increase in dropout rates, with grave implications for the accumulation of human capital. According to the Bank, more than one year into the pandemic, only 23 percent of students in the region were attending school in person. Vaccine deployment and government policies differed greatly across the region, explaining these differences. Educational engagement in Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, and Chile has been mainly virtual, as schools remained closed for the most part. On the contrary, in-person attendance was more common in the Caribbean and Central America. Children in wealthier households, measured by the number of assets, are more likely to be engaged in schooling, but their attendance is also mostly virtual. Lower engagement in learning activities and low face-to-face attendance pose significant risks for children’s learning outcomes and human capital accumulation. Recent estimates reveal that students in the region lost between 12 and 18 months of schooling. Those from low socio-economic levels were particularly affected, which suggests long-lasting negative effects on social mobility and inequality.