After a catastrophic five-year tenure as Guyana’s Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand appears to be waging a full-blown digital rehabilitation campaign, and she’s not even trying to hide it.
In what can only be described as a coordinated flood of oddly synchronized praise; first made public by a Hana Mohamed facebook post, Manickchand’s Facebook page has become a nesting site of generic comments, all parroting the same scripted adoration for the minister of education. But Guyanese citizens are no fools. Many are now asking, Who are these ‘people’? Why are the comments nearly identical? And why does it all read like the output of a poorly programmed chatbot? Some are laughing and most find it embarrassing that a minister or her team should have to resort to such tactics.
In truth, Minister Manickchand is not riding high on a wave of public approval. She’s scrambling. And she has reason to be. Her time in office has been defined by failure and tragedy. It began with the abandonment of students during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving thousands without learning support or digital tools. Then came the nationwide collapse in test scores, with alarming underperformance in core subjects like math and science. Teachers were mistreated and dismissed in union negotiations. And worst of all, her negligence played a role in the deaths of 20 girls in the Mahdia dorm fire, a national trauma still unresolved.
Add to that a growing list of mysterious school fires and most recently, the NGSA cheating allegations scandal that shocked even seasoned educators, and it becomes clear, Manickchand isn’t leading Guyana’s education system, she’s burying it.
But instead of accountability, we’re witnessing a superficial rebrand. There’s a blitz of school photo ops, a noticeable weight loss transformation, and a stream of smiling selfies, carefully curated to distract from the damage. And now, in what reeks of desperation, a bot army has arrived to do what real students, teachers, and parents won’t, applaud her.
Generic praise like “Minister Manickchand is building a legacy” or “Her passion is contagious” might fool a casual scroll, but the repetition, lack of detail, and rapid-fire likes suggest otherwise. This is not public support. This is political theater dressed up in pixels.
The students of Guyana deserved leadership. They got negligence. They deserved innovation. They got public relations. And now, the Minister who once held the future of our children in her hands is leaning on fake accounts to manufacture applause.
No number of bots can mask failure. And no amount of staged comments will erase the pain of a system mismanaged. The truth is out. And the people are watching you Priya.
SOURCE: @hanaKhamelia
