Georgetown: In an effort to attain more desirable results in the core subject areas, the Guyana Learning Institute (GLI) will soon offer classes in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC). Plans are also in the pipeline for the commencement of Certificate and Diploma level courses.
Members of the GLI management committee on Thursday related that from Tuesday 15 June, the Institute will be offering CSEC classes in Mathematics, English Language, Social Studies, Biology, Spanish and Information Technology. CSEC subjects and courses relating to the field of Agriculture will also be offered in future.
The classes will be conducted at the General and Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) Labour College and each subject will be offered once per week. Between June 14 and July 22, all classes will be free of cost but when that timeframes passes, students will pay a $4000 fee per subject monthly. It was also stated that courses in Public Management, Industrial Relations and Project Management are being planned.
Coordinator of the management committee Ganga Persaud likened the Certificate and Diploma programmes to that of the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE). Persaud stressed that GLI’s courses are in keeping in the guidelines of the University of Guyana.
“Once you have successfully completed both components, then your certificate will reflect your degree of achievement,” Persaud explained. The profiles for the degree of achievement will reflect Distinction, Credit and Pass. It was noted that the classes will cater for 35-40 students. It was also noted that GLI seeks to plan and implement specific training programmes to meet the needs of citizens through an “open education learning system”.
Present at the launch were Hydar Ally, former Ministry of Youth, Culture & Sport, Dr Frank Anthony, and educator Mohandatt Golsarran.
Over the years, calls have been made for measures to be implemented to improve the low pass rate of core subjects, especially Mathematics and English Language. These sentiments were also echoed by Chief Education Officer (CEO) Olato Sam who observed that despite an increase in results, much more work was needed.
At last year’s announcement of the CXC results, the CEO disclosed that the pass rate for Grades One to Three in English A at 49.36 per cent, compared to 46.98 per cent for 2014 while the Mathematics pass rate rose to 45.07 per cent from 38.75 per cent in 2014.
The 2015 CSEC results also revealed that the overall pass rate at the General and Technical proficiencies for Grades One to Three was 62.72 per cent. Of the 35 subject areas that 12,606 students wrote, 15 subjects recorded performances with the Grades One to Three passes exceeding 75 per cent.
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