Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
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GEORGETOWN, Guyana: December 26th, 2004....Guyana's Ministry of Education is working overtime to bring an end to violence in the country's schools by students via a pilot project. The move was made public by Ed Caesar, the country's Chief Education Officer.
Minister with responsibility for Education Dr. Henry Jeffery, while addressing a recent press conference, acknowledged the problem of school violence and said the ministry was addressing the issue as well as indiscipline in schools.
According to Caesar the pilot project which is already in place in two schools, is to determine whether the measures taken thus far are effective.
The Education Chief also advocated that parents as well as members of the community also have important roles to play in inculcating the right attitudes in children stressing that, violence in schools is a major concern not only in Guyana, but across the Caribbean.
Recently, teachers at the Glanville Primary School in Antigua was forced into protest action to draw education officials attention to the problems, including attacks from inmates at a near-by detention center for delinquent juveniles. On St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Island (USVI), some 80 teachers at the Adelletia Cancryn School were also forced to march on Government House to protest while in Trinidad, a school teacher was raped in a village named Penal.
Dr. Jeffery stressed the importance of the manner in which the region's schools are managed, pointing out that if children are exposed to a disciplined school environment from an early age, it would help to raise the consciousness of discipline in students. He also pointed out that during this year, there would be a greater effort made in Guyana to have more community involvement in the education sector, and encouraged this practice across the region.
In speaking of the strides being made in the teaching profession in Guyana regarding curriculum reform and renewal, Dr. Jeffery said Spanish is now a subject on the timetable of primary schools and trainee teachers at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) are exposed to a specific number of hours on teaching the language.
It was also pointed out that while the instructional teaching programme for Spanish needs human resources, teachers graduating from CPCE can teach the subject at the primary level. Teaching Spanish in primary schools here was driven by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
It was also revealed that one of the main challenges the ministry faced this year was the compromising of the Caribbean School Certificate Examination (CSEC), however Dr. Jeffrey said that efforts in collaboration with the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC), and upgrading the ministry's secretariat were under way to minimize the chance of a recurrence.
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