| – Minister Fox Minister within the Education Ministry, Dr Desrey FoxThe introduction of literacy and numeracy programmes in schools has had an undeniably positive impact in the public education system, which is evident by the improved ability of students.This notion was emphasised by Minister within the Education Ministry, Dr Desrey Fox,Jerseys From China, during an interview with this newspaper recently.But even as this year draws to an end, the minister is optimistic that the ministry,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, through its education for all mandate, will be able to reach even more youths in the new year.“I am just hoping that we can at least fulfil many of the projects that we have started…We have to ensure that we have more openings for young people who have left school.”She observed, though, that many youths today are cognizant of the need for education,NFL Jerseys China, even as she related that the ministry has sufficient resources to enable this progress, which comes as part of the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals.According to the minister, the ministry is being guided by its strategic plan,Discount NFL Jerseys, which has as its objective to notably improve the education sector.And this objective is already being realised, according to the minister. She pointed out that programmes such as the Education For All Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI), which is intended primarily for the hinterland regions, even has an aspect which caters to the nutritional needs of students, a factor which is crucial to students’ educational development.Minister Fox also highlighted the interactive radio programme, which she noted was formulated to focus on remedial education and is in fact working as anticipated.“There has been a rise in attendance, and these children in the hinterland are doing better. I was there in the primary school at Waramadong (Region Seven) with some UNICEF officials when children in Prep B were reading from a book…They were not picking, they were reading.”This improvement, the minister outlined, though, is in fact true for many other schools which have been exposed to the remedial programmes.But, according to Minister Fox, need for universal education is to some extent being challenged by the amount of trained teachers available to the sector to provide quality education.“We have seen, for example, that a little over 50 per cent of our teachers are untrained… and if you go into the interior, this per cent goes up to 70 per cent. When we consider all these things, we are beginning to see the results of some of the initiatives and programmes that we are doing.”And while there has been marked improved in the primary education, Minister Baksh had earlier this year lamented that, at the secondary level, the ministry has not been able to achieve universal secondary education.“There is a deep cry for secondary education, and I see this more in our hinterland communities. The children travel miles and miles to go to a secondary school. They live away from their homes for months in dormitories. There is that yearning, and we must satisfy those expectations.”As a result, Minister Baksh had outlined, in the ministry’s Education Strategic Plan for the next five years is a major goal to provide each child in Guyana with a secondary education.“This goal will call for additional resources to build some more secondary schools…It will call for more resources to train more of our teachers, because this is a challenge to have qualified graduate teachers in secondary schools in their numbers to achieve our results.”The senior minister had also related that, in many instances, some teachers have not lived up to the expected standard, because of the fact that they are not graduate teachers, thus emphasising the need for more graduate teachers to be recruited.Further, Minister Baksh divulged, at the post secondary level,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, the ministry is also working towards strengthening technical and vocational education. He added that Guyana is offering a two-tract approach, one being academic and the other vocational.But to garner certain success, Minister Fox divulged, it is crucial to consult on a regular basis with school administrators,China Jerseys Wholesale, so that they could buy into the sector’s strategic plan. This notion, the minister said, was highlighted when she launched a school administrators’ conference in Berbice last Tuesday.“Their (administrators) attitudes will have to change for us to see change…If they don’t have the information, then they cannot be on the alert to direct their schools on what to do…”Nonetheless, Minister Fox expressed optimism that the sector is furnished with some of the best educators in the region. “All we need to do is to work with them and motivate them.”Recognising that teachers’ incentives are crucial to teachers’ performances, the minister said that attempts are already being made to begin addressing this issue. |
