GUYANA: Education for All Project Gets EU Grant

Education For All project gets EU grant 
Future funding depends on results

05 August, 2003

Guyana has been given a grant of $2M Euros (US$2.2M) to implement the first 
year of a project which aims to significantly improve the number of trained 
teachers and to slash the dropout rate. 

The grant will go towards the government’s US$45M 12-year Education For All - 
Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) programme as part of a commitment to 
universal primary education by 2015.

The programmes, which focus chiefly on hinterland districts, are clustered 
under three strategic initiatives outlining goals for the education system: 
the improvement of the quality of the hinterland teaching force; the 
enhancement of the teaching-learning environment in primary schools; and the 
strengthening of school-community partnerships.

With the additional resources provided by the EFA-FTI programme, Guyana is 
expected to improve overall school attendance by 20%; increase the quota of 
trained teachers from 32% to 74% in the hinterland and 53% to 65% on the 
coastland; and decrease the repeat and dropout rates at the primary level by 
10%, all by 2015.

According to Harry Hagan, an economist with the United Kingdom’s Department 
For International Development (DFID), Guyana is among the low-income 
countries which are on track to achieve the goal for universal primary 
education, although disparities still exist between the coastland and the 
hinterland.

Hagan, speaking at the launching of the EFA-FTI programme recently at the 
Ocean View International Hotel, was optimistic that Guyana could be a model 
for other developing countries.

Government spending on education and the pupil-teacher ratios are two areas 
where Guyana has been successful, though he said the country’s repeat and 
dropout rates were too high and there was a need for greater non-teacher 
salary spending.

Guyana has received funding for 2003 from the Netherlands, via an EFA-FTI 
Trust Fund, however incremental funding beyond this year will be linked to 
the progress of the programme. Hagan, identifying Norway, Belgium and Italy 
as potential donors, noted that while future funding was not firm, Guyana 
would likely continue as a beneficiary of a trust fund established for 
smaller countries.

Hagan stressed the need to show results to attract additional funding and 
said monitoring mechanisms were needed to gauge Guyana’s progress.
Under the US$4.74M initiative to improve the quality of the hinterland 
teaching force, programmes will focus on training of qualified teachers using 
the Guyana Basic Education Teacher Training (GBET) distance education 
approach; continuous professional development for all trained teachers; 
establishing satellite learning centres for teachers within a school cluster; 
and improving the conditions of service for teachers, including hard-lying 
allowances. 
The US$18.83M initiative for the enhancement of the teaching-learning 
environment at the primary level will comprise programmes for accelerating 
the implementation of the Escuela Nueva learning model and the establishment 
of child friendly classrooms in coastland schools. Improving the status of 
utilities across all schools and the provision of textbooks will also be 
addressed. 

US$21.46M will be expended on accelerating the implementation of School 
Improvement Plans (SIPs) and upgrading the current School Feeding Programme 
in the hinterland.

Minister of Education, Dr Henry Jeffrey, urged regional administrators to 
remember they were directly responsible for the implementation of the 
programmes.

Identifying student and teacher absenteeism as perhaps the greatest potential 
impediments, Jeffrey issued a call for improved school management to curb 
this phenomenon.

“...If teachers are not there and the children are not there, the education 
process will go nowhere, no matter what programmes are put in place.”

Describing the current rates of teacher and student absences as unacceptable, 
at 20% and 30%, respectively, he noted that the situation was even worse in 
the hinterland. And he lamented that rather than dealing with the situation, 
school heads and even some in the Education ministry, sought to regularise 
it.

“It must not happen and there must be a strong school management system to 
ensure that the teachers and the students turn up....”
Although he pointed out the institution of feeding programmes as a measure 
which should boost student attendance, Jeffrey believed the logistics would 
be daunting. He conceded that housing for teachers in some regions was 
inadequate, but said the government was doing its best to provide housing to 
attract quality teachers to remote districts.


SOURCE: Stabroek News