Making his first speech in the National Assembly, youthful Alliance For Change (AFC) Member of Parliament (MP) Trevor Williams called out the government on what he claimed was its lack of accountability on the education of the youth in Guyana.
Williams said that a large percentage of youth are underrepresented in Guyana’s political sphere. Williams spoke last Friday during the budget debate. He stated that Guyana must “chart a better course and ensure that this government delivers value for money”. He said that there has been much talk about teacher training, universal secondary education and development in the areas of science and technology, but there is not much to show as teachers are leaving these shores, and students are still performing poorly in science.
He said government regards development in education as building schools and not empowering them. The AFC MP noted that Guyana needs to create a “labour force with skills” that matches the rest of the developed world. It was then that Williams noted that “70 per cent of our students are failing math”.
The MP said in 2008, 31.4 per cent obtained grades one to three passes in Mathematics at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination; in 2009, the figure was 31.1 per cent; in 2010, 34.5 per cent but the pass rate slipped to 30.4 per cent in 2011. “Teachers need tools and teaching aids not more schools.”
Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Dr Frank Anthony
“They spent Gy$ 65 billion on education in five years, and did very little by producing as we can simply call more functioning illiterates,” he said, noting that “nowhere else in the Caribbean does a recognised university suffer from such a shortage of quality lecturers”. Williams, a former University of Guyana student, urged the government to address the fallacy in Guyana’s education system from the primary level to the tertiary level, as this is critical for youth development.
James Bond from the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) echoed many of Williams’ sentiments, but went further to say that the New Opportunity Corps – the country’s main correctional facility for youth – “cannot prepare our young people for the 21st century, a century of cutting-edge technological advancements”.
Bond noted this was an example of the lack of recognition of youth empowerment in Guyana, claiming that the government refuses to see that Guyana needs to tackle growth on a more vigorous level, and that youth programmes at the NOC need to be improved to the standard of those offered by the best secondary institutions within Guyana.
APNU MP James Bond
Meanwhile, Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Dr Frank Anthony stated that progress has been made and “youth is too big to be contained in one ministry and that is why government youth services are provided in multisectoral ways by several ministries”. Minister Anthony went on that the government is practical and has invested heavily in youth jobs and youth leadership programmes.
He noted that the Gy$1.9 billion spent on youths has transformed youth development in Guyana. He said that because youth issues are so vast, it will take time to address, but every year over 6000 youths take part in the President’s Youth Award Republic of Guyana programme.
The minister stated too that an additional 3000 children from all 10 regions participate in youth camps aimed at youth leadership.
