When the APNU+AFC Coalition won the May 11th 2015 Regional and General Elections the party was handed an education system in which approximately 6,000 students dropped out of school yearly. This was the observation of Former President David Granger days before those elections. Granger made the remarks during a radio interview on 90.1 FM.
He stated, “There is a very large number of dropouts as you know, the last education digest I read indicated there were 6,000 dropouts every year from the primary and secondary school system. I am aware that in the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) at the primary level may be about 50% or more of the young people writing that exam fail all four subjects.”
The former President is a strong believer in education as a tool to ending illiteracy and poverty in communities. As such, as President, he appointed Dr. Nicolette Henry the substantive Minister of Education in June of 2017, with the mandate of fixing Guyana’s broken education system by keeping our children in School and to improve learning.
Immediately, the education statistics started improving. Guyana recorded what was said to be its highest ever pass rate of 73% at the Secondary level; that is, the CXC Examinations in 2019. According to the Ministry of Education, Guyana recorded a 63.39% pass rate in 2016, a 63.68% pass rate in 2017 and a 69.1% success rate in 2018.
Rolling on the successes achieved between 2016-2019, Minister Henry in delivering the 2019 results at NCERD in Kingston, noted that of the 11,467 students registered for the 2019 sitting of CSEC, 73% were able to achieve Grades 1 to 3 at the General and Technical proficiencies. The highest pass rate in Guyana’s history.
Berbice has given a great daughter, Nicolette Henry, to Guyana. Her leadership enhanced the quality of education and fostered inclusion of the Guyana Teachers’ Union in decision making. This will be her legacy, a restoration of good governance in the leadership of Guyana’s Education system.
More, In The Ring.
