Spanish to be made compulsory in primary schools come September

Spanish will be made a compulsory subject in the primary school curriculum from September, in keeping with the government’s ongoing efforts to improve education at all levels.

President Irfaan Ali made the announcement during a press conference on Wednesday, at his Shiv Chanderpaul Drive office, Georgetown.

“Being in a continent in South America…we are the only English-speaking country. We have to realise too, that we are part of this continent that speaks Spanish. And I believe we are going to do the future young people of our country an injustice if we don’t point them in this direction. If you want to be competitive internationally, you have to have this second language,” the President noted.

Ali said the government has engaged several bilateral partners to loan Guyana the human resource assets for the process to commence.

According to Ali Guyana is going “to build the capacity by September to have this introduced at least to start from Grades Four or Five…I’ve asked for a full assessment [and] I’ve been told that we have adequate capability, especially at the secondary level, to have this compulsory language taught.”