Georgetown: The long awaited Education Bill which will enable major reforms in the education sector will be tabled in the House before month-end.
The legislation when it comes into force will repeal the current Education Act and allow the Education Ministry to adopt a more modern and hands-on approach to various issues impacting the sector.
The bill, among other things seeks to address issues such as private schools licensing, requirements for persons to be employed as a teacher and students admission age at the nursery level.
The legislation has benefited from a series of consultations hosted by the ministry and stakeholders include teachers, parents and owners of private school.
In February 2013, Minister Manickchand had indicated that the bill would seek to change the mandatory admission age for students. As it stands, the current age for a child to be admitted in nursery school is three years, nine months. However, with the passage of this legislation, the age will be modified to three years, three months. Despite this level of education not being compulsory, most children in Guyana begin their academic education at this tender age.
Presently, a child can enter a public nursery school at age three years if the child will be at least three years, nine months by December of the year. Children who are born after March 31 are required to wait until September of the next year to commence formal education.
However, before the new age requirement is instituted, the Education Ministry will be making the necessary preparations to facilitate the change, Minister Manickchand explained. The two-year education programme at the nursery level is intended to afford pupils a learning environment conducive to their physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development.
Currently, persons can be employed as acting teachers with three Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects at grades one to three at the general proficiency level.
If persons do not have a grade three or higher in English Language, they must have grades one to three in five other subjects. Acting teachers are usually employed in the Hinterland regions where there are severe difficulties in attracting qualified teachers to fill vacant posts.
The new Education Bill will however modify the prerequisite requirements for persons desirous of becoming teachers.
With regards to private schools, the bill will seek to bring them up to the standard of state institutions.
Work on the Education Bill started under former Education Minister Henry Jeffrey, and after the 2006 elections, it continued under Minister Shaik Baksh, but was stuck at the attorney general chambers for a long time.
When Manickchand assumed the education minister portfolio after the 2011 elections, she restarted the consultation, and after more than eight years of consultation, there is a promise to have the bill tabled in the House before month-end.
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