Education Minister Priya Manickchand and Shadow Minister Coretta McDonald locked horns on Tuesday during the 2025 budget debate over the state of education in Guyana, particularly the pass rates in Mathematics and English.
McDonald, who is also the General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, laid much of the blame for the current state of education squarely on the shoulders of Manickchand.
She argued that during the tenure of the APNU+AFC coalition, substantial investments were made in education, including the development of schools.
According to McDonald, these efforts resulted in “effective learning” and improved educational outcomes. However, she painted a grim picture of the sector today, claiming that there is no clear indication that the investments made in recent years have delivered the expected results.
“The sector is in a mess now,” McDonald said, adding that the current government had failed to address the low graduation and matriculation rates at all levels.
“Where are we putting the monies allotted in the budget?” she asked.
In her rebuttal, Minister Manickchand took aim at the previous administration, noting that the PPP/C government had never shied away from addressing the challenges facing the education sector.
“We don’t hide from problems,” she said, adding that the PPP/C government would not rest until there was a 100% pass rate for both mathematics and English.
“So we don’t set up [Commissions of Inquiry] nonsensically. There is the problem. We will deal with the problem.”
Manickchand acknowledged the difficulty in improving these pass rates but reminded the House that the problem had long been recognised.
She pointed to the alarming pass rates in 2016, during the Coalition time in government, where 14 per cent of Grade Six students passed mathematics and fewer than 50 per cent passed English. The then Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, had labelled this situation as a matter of “extreme urgency,” but Manickchand pointed out that his government had done nothing more than establish a commission of inquiry, the report of which was never submitted to Parliament or published.
For Guyana, at the CSEC level, English A saw a slight decline in pass rates, dropping from 72 per cent to 69 per cent in 2024 while mathematics recorded a pass rate of 31 per cent in 2024, down from 34 per cent.
Against this backdrop, the Education Minister took time to outline the steps the PPP/C has already taken to address the issue. She highlighted the introduction of immediate interventions, including the distribution of scientific calculators, geometry sets, graph books, and other essential resources to students.
Monitors have been sent to schools to ensure teachers are adhering to the syllabus, and a focus has been placed on engaging parents in the educational process.
“We are doing something about it,” Manickchand declared.
She also referred to regional challenges, noting that the issue of declining pass rates in mathematics and English was not unique to Guyana but was part of a wider Caribbean trend.
She cited initiatives by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) that were set to address these issues, with a targeted plan to begin in September 2026.
