Education in Guyana
Encyclopedia
Education in Guyana is provided largely by the government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Education and its arms in the ten different regions of the country. Guyana's education system is a legacy from its time as British Guiana
, and is similar to that of the other anglophone
member states of the Caribbean Community
, which are affiliated to the Caribbean Examinations Council
(CXC). School curricula, funding, standards and other policies are set by the central government and implemented through the Ministry of Education and related agencies. The Education System is divided into eleven districts, ten of which correspond to the national administrative and geographical regions of the country, while the capital, Georgetown
, is treated as a separate education district. With 8.3% of its GDP spent on education, Guyana sits with Cuba, Iceland, Denmark and Botswana as among the few countries with top spending on education.
The statutory age for beginning compulsory education is five years nine months, and students are required to attend school until age 16. However, children who do not meet the statutory age to begin school are sometimes enrolled early or generally attend some kind of pre-school. To meet the requirements for compulsory education students generally attend public schools, but there are a few private schools which offer education at one or all stages of learning; home-schooling is virtually non-existent in Guyana. The academic year usually begins in September and ends in July of the following year and with the exception of President's College
students have a five-hour school day.
Outside of the private sector, free education
from nursery to university was the norm in Guyana until the mid 1990s. The current provision of
education is subsidised from nursery through secondary schools, with students now having to pay for tuition at some tertiary institutions. This development reflected a change from the 1970s when Guyana became a socialist-inspired Cooperative
Republic. The country's educational policy in the 1970s was intended to broaden access to education, as before that education beyond primary school was expensive and designed primarily for a small elite. In the 1970s single-sex schools were made co-educational; private and parochial schools were incorporated into the public system.
The reform which occurred was part of a wider phenomenon in a post-colonial CARICOM aiming to provide an education that reflected
the full heritage and aspirations of independent states. Today, as part of its obligations to the CXC, Guyana's educational specifications and
assessment procedures are bound by regional guidelines. Students wear uniforms to school.
Guyana has a reading literacy rate at 92% of the population over age 15. Despite this high level of reading literacy, significant portions of the Guyanese population
have functional literacy difficulties resulting in a lack of employability and other socio-economic disadvantages; this has caused government and charitable agencies to push education as a tool in poverty reduction.
Guyana is one of the highest ranked developing countries in the Education Index
of the United Nations
Human Development Report
.
With a score of 0.943 on the Education Index, its overall rank is 37, but ranks third in the Caribbean after Cuba and Barbados, and second in South America after Argentina. According to DFID, Guyana has achieved the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education
but continues to struggle with the provision of increased access to satisfactory secondary education. As one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere
, instruction in Guyana's schools makes little or no use of instructional technologies such as interactive whiteboards or other multimedia tools. Indeed, many schools are short on basic resources, especially in the areas of science and technology, and this sometimes puts students at a disadvantage when compared to their counterparts in the region.
As part of a continuous effort to tackle inequalities and inefficiencies in the system, the parliament
of Guyana has been debating and redrafting the 2007 Education bill. The bill moves Guyana closer to a comprehensive education system, but retains the use of corporal punishment
as a disciplinary measure, despite Guyana's obligations to international conventions such as the UN Rights of the Child.
as play schools are provided by the government as well as private entities. It is essentially a formalised extension of early childhood education
and is available to children who are age 3 years 9 months at the end of the first term of the school year. The education section of Guyana's National Development Strategy (NDS), chapter 18, further indicates that the nursery education programme is a two year programme which focuses on child development.
The introduction of a national nursery education programme occurred in 1976 as part of larger education reforms in the country. The programme is delivered in specially designed nursery schools or in primary schools. Some nursery schools function as feeder programmes for primary schools which are seen as high achievers - gaining entrance into those schools inevitably becomes competitive and sometimes exclusive.
Nursery schools in Guyana since the 1980s have faced serious challenges such as adequate numbers of trained teachers as well as adequate facilities. However, as early childhood education takes on a higher level of importance in development and poverty eradication, efforts are afoot to address those challenges. UNICEF is one body that is involved in addressing nursery education challenges as it is a major funder of initiatives which further childhood development in Guyana and elsewhere.
There are essentially three types of primary schools: the first and most common one is the primary school which provides a typical primary education - from Grades 1 to 6, then there is the primary school which has a primary and a secondary department, and the primary school which has a nursery and secondary department.
The curriculum of primary schools in Guyana is designed to impart basic literacy and numeracy skills, and also aims to prepare students for secondary education. This literacy and numeracy training is complemented with lessons in Social Studies
and Integrated Science. Though Guyana is considered to have met its Millennium Development Goal for universal primary education, the challenge for primary education remains equity of access in terms of curriculum delivery, quality and relevance. Equity of access is a problem largely as a result of how the primary education system is structured, as well as uneven resource availability based on geography - that is, schools on Guyana's coasts and in urban areas tend to be better resourced than schools in the hinterland or in rural areas.
, St. Stanislaus College
, President's College
and Queen's College
rather than a school in their geographic catchment area.
For the most part, the curriculum offered in secondary schools is that of the CXC geared towards preparing students to leave secondary school with subject passes at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) or the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE). CSEC is equivalent to the UK's General Certificate of Secondary Education
(GCSE) and CAPE to A-levels. The senior and junior secondary schools prepare students for the CSEC and CAPE qualifications, but the Community High Schools and secondary departments prepare students for the Secondary Schools Proficiency Examination (SSPE); students who do well on this exam may transfer to senior or junior secondary schools. Students attending senior or junior secondary schools attend from Grade 7 to Grade 11 for CSEC and move on to Grade 12 if interested in the CAPE qualification. Community High and students in secondary departments of primary schools, attend from Grade 7 to Grade 10. GCSE and A-level examinations are still offered in some schools but they are expected to be phased out as part of the educational reforms.
Since the 1990s Guyana has seen the return of faith schools, primarily in the secondary sector. There is one International School - the Georgetown International School. The other private schools recognised by the Ministry of Education are: ISA Islamic School (Muslim
)http://www.gitgy.com/isa.html, Mae's School, The New Guyana School, The School of the Nations (Bahai)http://www.schoolnations-gy.com/ and Marian's Academy (Roman Catholic)http://www.marianacademy.edu.gy/. These private schools have become highly desirable as they are seen to offer a better quality of education compared to public schools.
In most cases, students are considered to have had a good secondary education after obtaining a minimum of five CSEC subjects at the CXC; depending on their career interests, students may spend a further two years in secondary school for CAPE
offerings or proceed directly to further or higher education courses. Though the CSEC subjects are normally taken in Grade Eleven and the CAPE subjects in Grades Twelve and Thirteen, students may take them earlier if so prepared. Students are required to take a foreign language
in some schools, but outside of core subjects, the curriculum generally allows students to focus on their interests. The International Baccalaureate IB programme is not available in Guyana, but parents and students interested in the Advanced Placement AP programme can pursue it at the Georgetown International School.http://www.isbi.com/istd-viewschool/4030-Georgetown_International_School.html
Anna Regina Multilateral
school and President's College
are Guyana's only boarding schools; both of them are co-educational public schools.
but this is supplemented or adapted where required. As in some places, there is still a stigma associated with attending a special school,
as a result some parents avoid enrolling their children. Apart from that, there isn't a society-wide consciousness or campaign for improving facilities for disabled students. Some schools are partnered with mainstream schools as in the case of President's College and the David Rose School;
in this partnership President's College students raise funds and provide other forms of support for the students of the David Rose School. Some special schools cater for the emotionally and socially deprived as well as students who have disabilities such as visual or auditory impairment.
CPCE
CPCE was established by law in the 19th Century to train primary school teachers; today, its main campus is at Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown with centres at New Amsterdam and Linden, Rose Hall, Anna Regina, Vreed-en-Hoop and provides two and three year programmes for nursery, primary and secondary teachers, the programmes are in-service and pre-service.
Schools of Nursing (Georgetown, New Amsterdam)
These institutions provide basic training for nursing assistants, professional nurses, as well as midwifery
.
Critchlow Labour College
The Critchlow Labour College was established in 1967as the educational arm of the trade Union Movement. It provides pre-university courses in Industrial Relations, business, sociology and a CXC programme for school leavers who need to obtain those qualifications. It has plans to introduce
associate degrees but has postponed that initiative because of funding problmes.
Kuru Kuru Cooperative College
Kuru Kuru Cooperative College is accredited by the University of Guyana and the Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions. This institution lists
its main aim as that of providing training on all aspects of cooperative business.
Other Colleges
Apart from these state-owned institutions there are private institutions which offer training in accountancy, business and computing among other fields.
is Guyana is the major university that operates on two campuses, Tain (Berbice
) and Turkeyen (Demerara
). It was established in 1963 after Guyana expressed its preference for a local university given the costs associated with Guyanese students attending the University of the West Indies (UWI) and other universities.
It provides a professional education in many areas, but students who want to pursue training in fields such as anthropology, astronomy or librarianship must travel abroad or pursue distance studies. Students who cannot afford university tuition fees may take a student loan from the state-run student loans agency. The University of Guyana like the University of the West Indies is an associate member of CARICOM, it is also a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities
.
Greenheart Medical University is another relatively new university (established in 2004) that mainly offers degree programs relevant to health care, including medicine, nursing and pharmacy. The programs offered are with collaboration with University of Guyana and local teaching hospital.
fulfil this role along with many other private and government post-secondary institutions. At the moment the government of Guyana is administering a National Fast Track Literacy programme which aims to improve the literacy skills of young people and adults who did not complete formal education.
Miller, E. ed. (1991) Education and Society in the Commonwealth Caribbean. UWI ISBN 978-9764000358
Tsang, M. et al. (2002) Access, Equity and Performance: Education in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. IDB
ISBN 978-1931003216
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
, and is similar to that of the other anglophone
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
member states of the Caribbean Community
Caribbean Community
The Caribbean Community is an organisation of 15 Caribbean nations and dependencies. CARICOM's main purposes are to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy...
, which are affiliated to the Caribbean Examinations Council
Caribbean Examinations Council
The Caribbean Examinations Council or CXC was established in 1972 under Agreement by the Participating Governments in the Area to conduct such examinations as it may think appropriate and award certificates and diplomas on the results of any such examinations so conducted...
(CXC). School curricula, funding, standards and other policies are set by the central government and implemented through the Ministry of Education and related agencies. The Education System is divided into eleven districts, ten of which correspond to the national administrative and geographical regions of the country, while the capital, Georgetown
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
, is treated as a separate education district. With 8.3% of its GDP spent on education, Guyana sits with Cuba, Iceland, Denmark and Botswana as among the few countries with top spending on education.
The statutory age for beginning compulsory education is five years nine months, and students are required to attend school until age 16. However, children who do not meet the statutory age to begin school are sometimes enrolled early or generally attend some kind of pre-school. To meet the requirements for compulsory education students generally attend public schools, but there are a few private schools which offer education at one or all stages of learning; home-schooling is virtually non-existent in Guyana. The academic year usually begins in September and ends in July of the following year and with the exception of President's College
President's College
President's College is a senior secondary school located in Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara, Guyana.-History:When it opened in 1985, it was the first boarding school in Guyana and the only secondary school to use a more comprehensive and selective application process...
students have a five-hour school day.
Outside of the private sector, free education
Free education
Free education refers to education that is funded through taxation, or charitable organizations rather than tuition fees. Although primary school and other comprehensive or compulsory education is free in many countries, for example, all education is mostly free including...
from nursery to university was the norm in Guyana until the mid 1990s. The current provision of
education is subsidised from nursery through secondary schools, with students now having to pay for tuition at some tertiary institutions. This development reflected a change from the 1970s when Guyana became a socialist-inspired Cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
Republic. The country's educational policy in the 1970s was intended to broaden access to education, as before that education beyond primary school was expensive and designed primarily for a small elite. In the 1970s single-sex schools were made co-educational; private and parochial schools were incorporated into the public system.
The reform which occurred was part of a wider phenomenon in a post-colonial CARICOM aiming to provide an education that reflected
the full heritage and aspirations of independent states. Today, as part of its obligations to the CXC, Guyana's educational specifications and
assessment procedures are bound by regional guidelines. Students wear uniforms to school.
Guyana has a reading literacy rate at 92% of the population over age 15. Despite this high level of reading literacy, significant portions of the Guyanese population
have functional literacy difficulties resulting in a lack of employability and other socio-economic disadvantages; this has caused government and charitable agencies to push education as a tool in poverty reduction.
Guyana is one of the highest ranked developing countries in the Education Index
Education Index
This article contains information based on the pre-2010 Human Development Reports. The HDI and its education component have changed in 2010.The United Nations publishes a Human Development Index every year, which consists of the Education index, GDP Index and Life Expectancy Index...
of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Human Development Report
Human Development Report
The Human Development Report is an annual milestone publication by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme .-History:...
.
With a score of 0.943 on the Education Index, its overall rank is 37, but ranks third in the Caribbean after Cuba and Barbados, and second in South America after Argentina. According to DFID, Guyana has achieved the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education
Universal Primary Education
The second United Nations Millennium Development Goal is to achieve Universal Primary Education, more specifically, to “ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling." Currently, there are more than 75 million children...
but continues to struggle with the provision of increased access to satisfactory secondary education. As one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
, instruction in Guyana's schools makes little or no use of instructional technologies such as interactive whiteboards or other multimedia tools. Indeed, many schools are short on basic resources, especially in the areas of science and technology, and this sometimes puts students at a disadvantage when compared to their counterparts in the region.
As part of a continuous effort to tackle inequalities and inefficiencies in the system, the parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
of Guyana has been debating and redrafting the 2007 Education bill. The bill moves Guyana closer to a comprehensive education system, but retains the use of corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
as a disciplinary measure, despite Guyana's obligations to international conventions such as the UN Rights of the Child.
Structure
| Level or Grade | Typical age |
|---|---|
| Preschool Nursery school A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare... |
|
| Various optional programs, such as Head Start | Under 6 |
| Pre-Kindergarten Pre-Kindergarten Pre-kindergarten refers to the first formal academic classroom-based learning environment that a child customarily attends in the United States. It begins between the ages of 3-5 depending on the length of the program... |
4-5 |
| Kindergarten Kindergarten A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school... |
5-6 |
| Primary School | |
| Grade 1 | 6–7 |
| Grade 2 | 7–8 |
| Grade 3 | 8–9 |
| Grade 4 | 9–10 |
| Grade 5 | 10–11 |
| Grade 6 | 11–12 |
| Secondary School Secondary school Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place... |
|
| Grade 7 | 12–13 |
| Grade 8 | 13–14 |
| Grade 9 | 14-15 |
| Grade 10 | 15-16 |
| Grade 11 | 16-17 |
| Grade 12 | 17–18 |
| Grade 13 | 18–19 |
| Post-secondary education | |
| Tertiary education Tertiary education Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school... (College College A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations... or University University A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education... ) |
Ages vary |
| Vocational education Vocational education Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation... |
Ages vary |
| Graduate education | |
| Adult education Adult education Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers... |
|
Nursery school
Nursery education in Guyana is not compulsory, though most children attend them. Nursery or kindergarten schools, sometimes referred toas play schools are provided by the government as well as private entities. It is essentially a formalised extension of early childhood education
Early childhood education
Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. 'Early childhood' is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling - five years in most nations, though the U.S...
and is available to children who are age 3 years 9 months at the end of the first term of the school year. The education section of Guyana's National Development Strategy (NDS), chapter 18, further indicates that the nursery education programme is a two year programme which focuses on child development.
The introduction of a national nursery education programme occurred in 1976 as part of larger education reforms in the country. The programme is delivered in specially designed nursery schools or in primary schools. Some nursery schools function as feeder programmes for primary schools which are seen as high achievers - gaining entrance into those schools inevitably becomes competitive and sometimes exclusive.
Nursery schools in Guyana since the 1980s have faced serious challenges such as adequate numbers of trained teachers as well as adequate facilities. However, as early childhood education takes on a higher level of importance in development and poverty eradication, efforts are afoot to address those challenges. UNICEF is one body that is involved in addressing nursery education challenges as it is a major funder of initiatives which further childhood development in Guyana and elsewhere.
Primary school
Primary education is compulsory and requires attendance for six years. Over the last five years education in Guyana has been undergoing continuous reform. The six year programme is no longer organised as "Preparatory A and B, and Standards 1 to 4" - it is now Grades 1 to 6. Part of this reform has meant that the Secondary School Entrance Education (SSEE) 11+ or common entrance exam is no longer used to award places in secondary schools, instead primary school students now take the Grade Two (Level 2), Grade Four (Level 4) and Grade Six (Level 6) assessments to gain a secondary school place. One of the objectives of this reform is to tackle the problem of overcrowding at oversubscribed schools.There are essentially three types of primary schools: the first and most common one is the primary school which provides a typical primary education - from Grades 1 to 6, then there is the primary school which has a primary and a secondary department, and the primary school which has a nursery and secondary department.
The curriculum of primary schools in Guyana is designed to impart basic literacy and numeracy skills, and also aims to prepare students for secondary education. This literacy and numeracy training is complemented with lessons in Social Studies
Social studies
Social studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the American National Council for the Social Studies...
and Integrated Science. Though Guyana is considered to have met its Millennium Development Goal for universal primary education, the challenge for primary education remains equity of access in terms of curriculum delivery, quality and relevance. Equity of access is a problem largely as a result of how the primary education system is structured, as well as uneven resource availability based on geography - that is, schools on Guyana's coasts and in urban areas tend to be better resourced than schools in the hinterland or in rural areas.
Secondary school
Secondary schooling in Guyana is tiered. There are senior secondary schools, which tend to be more academic in orientation, junior secondary schools, Community High Schools and Secondary Departments of Primary Schools. Since the current reforms are phased, students who perform well in their primary school assessments are awarded places at top schools such as Bishops' High SchoolBishops' High School, Guyana
The Bishops' High School is ranked as one of best secondary schools in Georgetown, Guyana.It was established in 1870 by the Anglican Church as a ladies' school. The school later merged with Mrs. Vyfhuis' school, also founded in 1870, and then with the DeSaffon school. Mrs. Vyfhuis was offered...
, St. Stanislaus College
St. Stanislaus College
St. Stanislaus College is in Georgetown, Guyana, with a student population of over five hundred and a teaching staff of about forty.The College motto is ‘Aeterna Non Caduca’ .The school was opened in May 1866. It was an all boys' school.In the early years, the school was known as St...
, President's College
President's College
President's College is a senior secondary school located in Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara, Guyana.-History:When it opened in 1985, it was the first boarding school in Guyana and the only secondary school to use a more comprehensive and selective application process...
and Queen's College
Queen's College, Guyana
Queen's College is the top secondary school in Guyana;Situated at the South-Easterly Junction of Camp Street and Thomas Lands. Alumni can enter the school through the National Grade Six Assessment and at the Lower 6th Form Level if the academic performance of the student at the Caribbean Secondary...
rather than a school in their geographic catchment area.
For the most part, the curriculum offered in secondary schools is that of the CXC geared towards preparing students to leave secondary school with subject passes at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) or the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE). CSEC is equivalent to the UK's General Certificate of Secondary Education
General Certificate of Secondary Education
The General Certificate of Secondary Education is an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by students aged 14–16 in secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is equivalent to a Level 2 and Level 1 in Key Skills...
(GCSE) and CAPE to A-levels. The senior and junior secondary schools prepare students for the CSEC and CAPE qualifications, but the Community High Schools and secondary departments prepare students for the Secondary Schools Proficiency Examination (SSPE); students who do well on this exam may transfer to senior or junior secondary schools. Students attending senior or junior secondary schools attend from Grade 7 to Grade 11 for CSEC and move on to Grade 12 if interested in the CAPE qualification. Community High and students in secondary departments of primary schools, attend from Grade 7 to Grade 10. GCSE and A-level examinations are still offered in some schools but they are expected to be phased out as part of the educational reforms.
Since the 1990s Guyana has seen the return of faith schools, primarily in the secondary sector. There is one International School - the Georgetown International School. The other private schools recognised by the Ministry of Education are: ISA Islamic School (Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
)http://www.gitgy.com/isa.html, Mae's School, The New Guyana School, The School of the Nations (Bahai)http://www.schoolnations-gy.com/ and Marian's Academy (Roman Catholic)http://www.marianacademy.edu.gy/. These private schools have become highly desirable as they are seen to offer a better quality of education compared to public schools.
In most cases, students are considered to have had a good secondary education after obtaining a minimum of five CSEC subjects at the CXC; depending on their career interests, students may spend a further two years in secondary school for CAPE
Cape
Cape can be used to describe any sleeveless outer garment, such as a poncho, but usually it is a long garment that covers only the back half of the wearer, fastening around the neck. They were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon, and have had periodic...
offerings or proceed directly to further or higher education courses. Though the CSEC subjects are normally taken in Grade Eleven and the CAPE subjects in Grades Twelve and Thirteen, students may take them earlier if so prepared. Students are required to take a foreign language
Foreign language
A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
in some schools, but outside of core subjects, the curriculum generally allows students to focus on their interests. The International Baccalaureate IB programme is not available in Guyana, but parents and students interested in the Advanced Placement AP programme can pursue it at the Georgetown International School.http://www.isbi.com/istd-viewschool/4030-Georgetown_International_School.html
Anna Regina Multilateral
Anna Regina Multilateral
Anna Regina Multilateral School is a secondary school which was established in 1973 in Anna Regina, Essequibo. It is one of only two boarding schools in Guyana, the other one being the President's College.-See also:List of schools in Guyana...
school and President's College
President's College
President's College is a senior secondary school located in Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara, Guyana.-History:When it opened in 1985, it was the first boarding school in Guyana and the only secondary school to use a more comprehensive and selective application process...
are Guyana's only boarding schools; both of them are co-educational public schools.
Special schools
Students with disabilities or special needs are educated in schools specially designed for them. They follow the national curriculum,but this is supplemented or adapted where required. As in some places, there is still a stigma associated with attending a special school,
as a result some parents avoid enrolling their children. Apart from that, there isn't a society-wide consciousness or campaign for improving facilities for disabled students. Some schools are partnered with mainstream schools as in the case of President's College and the David Rose School;
in this partnership President's College students raise funds and provide other forms of support for the students of the David Rose School. Some special schools cater for the emotionally and socially deprived as well as students who have disabilities such as visual or auditory impairment.
Vocational school/Technical school
There are about ten technical/vocational schools across the country which are post-secondary in nature. Among the more prominent technical/vocational schools are the Government Technical Institute (GTI), Guyana Industrial Training Centre (GTIC), Carnegie School of Home Economics, Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA), New Amsterdam Technical Institute (NATI) and the Linden Technical Institute. Private entities such as the Guyana Sugar Corporation and the Private Aircraft Owners Association also provide technical education.Further Education/Higher Education
This sector includes teacher training colleges, advanced technical schools and the university.College
The Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), the Schools of Nursing (Georgetown, New Amsterdam), Critchlow Labour College and Kuru Kuru Cooperative College are the principal colleges in Guyana.CPCE
CPCE was established by law in the 19th Century to train primary school teachers; today, its main campus is at Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown with centres at New Amsterdam and Linden, Rose Hall, Anna Regina, Vreed-en-Hoop and provides two and three year programmes for nursery, primary and secondary teachers, the programmes are in-service and pre-service.
Schools of Nursing (Georgetown, New Amsterdam)
These institutions provide basic training for nursing assistants, professional nurses, as well as midwifery
Midwifery
Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding....
.
Critchlow Labour College
The Critchlow Labour College was established in 1967as the educational arm of the trade Union Movement. It provides pre-university courses in Industrial Relations, business, sociology and a CXC programme for school leavers who need to obtain those qualifications. It has plans to introduce
associate degrees but has postponed that initiative because of funding problmes.
Kuru Kuru Cooperative College
Kuru Kuru Cooperative College is accredited by the University of Guyana and the Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions. This institution lists
its main aim as that of providing training on all aspects of cooperative business.
Other Colleges
Apart from these state-owned institutions there are private institutions which offer training in accountancy, business and computing among other fields.
University
The University of GuyanaUniversity of Guyana
The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana is a public university established in 1963 by the Guyanese government.-History:Cheddi Jagan, then Premier of British Guiana considered that the University of the West Indies, to which his government had contributed since 1948, was not meeting the...
is Guyana is the major university that operates on two campuses, Tain (Berbice
Berbice
Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1815 a colony of the Netherlands. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom in the latter year, it was merged with Essequibo and Demerara to form the colony of British Guiana in 1831...
) and Turkeyen (Demerara
Demerara
Demerara was a region in South America in what is now Guyana that was colonised by the Dutch in 1611. The British invaded and captured the area in 1796...
). It was established in 1963 after Guyana expressed its preference for a local university given the costs associated with Guyanese students attending the University of the West Indies (UWI) and other universities.
It provides a professional education in many areas, but students who want to pursue training in fields such as anthropology, astronomy or librarianship must travel abroad or pursue distance studies. Students who cannot afford university tuition fees may take a student loan from the state-run student loans agency. The University of Guyana like the University of the West Indies is an associate member of CARICOM, it is also a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities
Association of Commonwealth Universities
The Association of Commonwealth Universities represents over 480 universities from Commonwealth countries.- History :In 1912, the University of London took the initiative to assemble 53 representatives of universities in London to hold a Congress of Universities of the Empire...
.
Greenheart Medical University is another relatively new university (established in 2004) that mainly offers degree programs relevant to health care, including medicine, nursing and pharmacy. The programs offered are with collaboration with University of Guyana and local teaching hospital.
Continuing/Adult education
The Adult Education Association and, the Institute of Adult and Continuing Education (IDCE), the extramural arm of the University of GuyanaUniversity of Guyana
The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana is a public university established in 1963 by the Guyanese government.-History:Cheddi Jagan, then Premier of British Guiana considered that the University of the West Indies, to which his government had contributed since 1948, was not meeting the...
fulfil this role along with many other private and government post-secondary institutions. At the moment the government of Guyana is administering a National Fast Track Literacy programme which aims to improve the literacy skills of young people and adults who did not complete formal education.
See also
- Education in the United KingdomEducation in the United KingdomEducation in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter with each of the countries of the United Kingdom having separate systems under separate governments: the UK Government is responsible for England, and the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive are...
- List of schools in Guyana
- Caribbean Examinations CouncilCaribbean Examinations CouncilThe Caribbean Examinations Council or CXC was established in 1972 under Agreement by the Participating Governments in the Area to conduct such examinations as it may think appropriate and award certificates and diplomas on the results of any such examinations so conducted...
- South America Life Quality Rankings - Education Rankings
Further reading
Bastick, T. and Ezenne, A. (2003) Researching Change in Caribbean Education: Curriculum, Teaching and Administration. UWI ISBN 978-9766320454Miller, E. ed. (1991) Education and Society in the Commonwealth Caribbean. UWI ISBN 978-9764000358
Tsang, M. et al. (2002) Access, Equity and Performance: Education in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. IDB
IDB
IDB can mean:* Inter-American Development Bank, also known as IADB* IDB Communications Group, Inc., a constituent of MCI Inc.* Illegal Diamond Buying, the term used at the turn of the 19th-20th century for diamond trading outside the De Beers cartel....
ISBN 978-1931003216
External links
- http://www.education.gov.gy
- http://www.sdnp.org.gy/minedu/
- http://www.saints.edu.gy/
- http://www.ndsguyana.org/default.html
- http://www.gina.gov.gy