AFC wants comprehensive approach to address education failures

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:01 by GxMedia

(L-R) The AFC's Beverley Alert, Trevor Williams, Dominic Gaskin and David Patterson — (L-R) The AFC’s Beverley Alert, Trevor Williams, Dominic Gaskin and David Patterson

The Alliance For Change (AFC) on Wednesday congratulated the successful performers at this year’s CXC examinations but wasted little time in demanding what the government was doing about remedying the failures in the education system.

At a news conference MP Trevor Williams began by extending congratulations to CSEC top performers Zimeena Rasheed and Yogeeta Persaud, CAPE top performer Shalita Appadu, the teachers and parents before airing the party’s concerns.

“The 40 percent that did not acquire top passes between Grades One and Three, the AFC wishes to inquire what plans does the ministry has in place for that number of students to ensure they can secure success at coming examinations particularly in the areas of Maths and English,” he said.

Mathematics pass rate for Grades One to Three this year was 28.92 percent while English A recorded 45.69 percent. The overall pass rate for Grades One to Three was 59.31 percent.

“We have to do the whole package, teacher remuneration, the standards … in some schools the ratio of teacher to students has really fallen, the environment for learning is different. We have always called for a comprehensive review of education,” Williams added.

Meanwhile, party official Beverley Alert said their position has always been that the educators are the leaders in the sector and not the politicians.

“It is time for the technical people in the education system to sit and they must determine what needs to be done because they’re the best-placed persons to determine what needs to be done to move education forward in Guyana. Politicians can only help set policies but the rules, regulations, mechanisms to improve education, we need the educators to sit and determine that.”

Education minister Priya Manickchand in revealing the results on Tuesday had also expressed concern about the poor figures and stated there was need to address the delivery system starting from the primary level.