Dear Editor,
While much-needed rehabilitation work is being carried out at several schools across Guyana, it is having a significant impact on the teaching and learning process.
Many stakeholders in education, including the Minister of Education herself, have underscored the importance of the Easter term. This emphasis is well placed. The Easter term is pivotal because it represents the final period of structured teaching and learning for students preparing to write the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA). For Grade Eleven students, it is also the term during which the syllabus is completed in preparation for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.
The closure of some schools, coupled with the delayed reopening of others—without the implementation of meaningful measures to engage learners poses a serious threat to curriculum completion. Although the term spans twelve weeks, effective teaching occurs only up to the penultimate week, resulting in approximately eleven weeks of instruction under normal circumstances.
This instructional time is further reduced by regional and national activities associated with Republic Day observances, which remove substantial teaching hours from the timetable. When these losses are compounded by school closures lasting one or two weeks due to ongoing rehabilitation works, it becomes evident that students stand to lose more than half of the term’s effective teaching time.
Despite these realities, when students underperform, responsibility is often placed squarely on teachers. This is neither fair nor accurate. Teachers have limited input into national scheduling decisions and no control over the pace at which rehabilitation works are completed. It is therefore unreasonable to hold educators accountable for circumstances beyond their authority or influence.
In the interest of our learners, urgent coordination is required. I call on the relevant authorities to ensure that contractors adhere strictly to agreed timelines so that schools can be fully accessible for the remainder of the term. Where delays are unavoidable, alternative learning arrangements must be implemented to minimize disruption.
Our children’s education cannot be treated as an afterthought. Development and rehabilitation are necessary, but they must be planned and executed in a manner that protects learning time, particularly during a term that is critical to students’ academic future.