Education Minister Priya Manickchand on Tuesday unveiled a significant National Literacy Programme set to launch in January 2025.
Manickchand was addressing the launch of the National Mathematics Intervention Programme aimed at enhancing Guyana’s national math performance at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level.
The literacy programme will target children at the primary level.
“We believe being literate is the foundation of all the nation’s problems. Literate means read and understand, to comprehend,” Manickchand stated.
The literacy programme intends to ensure that every child can read by Grade Three, but there will also be a ‘grace period’ for up to Grade Four.
Manickchand added that the programme “is expensive, it is resource-heavy, it is very thought out and it is national. It will take into account the children who are entering nursery as well as the children who are already in secondary schools who cannot read.”
However, a challenge faced by the ministry, as Manickchand pointed out, is the monitoring and evaluating of programmes that the ministry puts out.
“We are building schools, we are training teachers, we are giving the resources, we are helping parents to outfit their children. We are supposed to be seeing more children being able to look after themselves when they exit your classrooms.
“And if we are not seeing that, then where is the weakness and how do we plug that gap? I believe the weakest thing in the Ministry of Education is and has always been M&E, monitoring and evaluating the beautiful programmes we put out,” Manickchand said.
As such, Manickchand believes that teachers need direct support in overcoming teaching difficulties.
“Teachers cannot be going out every day and deliberately teaching wrong. I believe teachers need help.”
Recently, libraries were established in primary schools across the country. This is part of a new initiative to promote literacy by getting more children to read.
