Georgetown : With a newly introduced outlook, the Ministry of Education with its recently appointed Minister, Ms. Priya Manickchand, is geared at reversing the dwindling pass rate in the area of Mathematics within the next five months. In fact the new Minister is optimistic that the subject area could reflect, at the minimum, a 20 percent improvement within the stipulate period. “Can we do this? Yes we can! Why? Because we are going to make sure you (teachers) and all the children have all the resources you need to be able to do this,” Manickchand passionately asserted.
The Minister’s ambitious objective was unveiled today even as she addressed a gathering of key officials who will be a part of a strategic pilot project aimed at optimizing students’ performance in the area of Mathematics and English at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level.
The forum, which was convened at the National Centre for Resource Development (NCERD), saw the Minister amplifying the importance of the project. She pointed out in brief remarks that while the education sector has seen large investments from the Government the corresponding results has not been forthcoming, particularly in the core subject areas of Maths and English. “This is one of the biggest Ministries in terms of the resources that are plugged into the Ministry but the result has not been proportionate to the investments made…the problem with that is very simple if our children can’t matriculate with Maths and English then it means they are going to be a lot of doors that are closed to them; in the job area and the further education area and we need to make sure that that changes.”
Just over 30 schools have been identified to participate in the project, among them: Abram Zuil, Anna Regina and Aurora (Region Two); West Demerara, Zeeburg, Patentia, Leonora, Stewartville (Region Three); Annandale, Coven Garden, Bladen Hall, Hope (Region Four); East Ruimveldt, Christ Church, North Georgetown, Central, Brickdam, North Ruimveldt, Richard Ishmael (Georgetown), Bushlot, Mahaicony, Bygeval, Woodly Park Primary Tops (Region Five); J. C. Chandisingh, Tagore Memorial, , New Amsterdam Multi, Berbice High, Skeldon LinePath (Region Six); Three Miles (Region Seven), Dormitory at
St. Ignatius (Region Nine), McKenzie High, Christianburg and Silver City (Region 10).
In addition to having trained Mathematics teachers, the schools were chosen based on the fact that their results were good enough both last year and this year and are therefore deemed to have a foundations which can foster the objectives of the ambitious project. Just over 4,000 students are being targeted, Manickchand noted even as she explained that the strategic move is expected to see students writing the CSEC examination next year reflecting the anticipated results, the Minister noted. Each student, she said, will be provided with the CXC General Maths Book I and II, the Self-Study Guide for CXC, the collection of revision DVDs, the combined pass papers from 2008 to 2011, Model Solutions to difficult answers, Combined Solution for everything in addition to a geometry set and graph paper and a scientific calculator. “If we focus on these students a little bit more over the next five months they are going to be able to be able to pass Mathematics and English.”
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