GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Opposition Leader and presidential candidate Aubrey Norton is making education the cornerstone of his campaign, calling it the “great emancipator” in a powerful interview with Dr. Terrence Blackman on the Guyana Business Journal podcast. The conversation, which aired at 7 PM, ranged widely across topics, but Norton’s vision for education reform stood out as a call to action.
Reflecting on his own journey from a working-class family in Linden to the University of Guyana and beyond, Norton credited free education with transforming his life and opening doors that poverty alone would have slammed shut.
“If free education hadn’t come to Guyana, I wouldn’t have had the academic opportunities I did,” he said. “Education gave me a path out—and every child in this country deserves the same.”
Norton lamented what he sees as the steady erosion of the public education system’s social support structures. He argues that many students with potential are being left behind because of poverty, poor instruction, or inadequate early childhood development.
He pledged to rebuild the early education infrastructure, including the creation of a national network of early childhood development centers and parenting support programs.
“The days when the village raised the child are fading. Today, we need institutions that pick up where the community has failed,” Norton warned.
A key component of his plan involves retooling the primary school curriculum to emphasize foundational literacy and numeracy.
“We must get back to the basics, reading, writing, comprehension, reasoning. If we don’t build those skills by Grade Four, the rest of the system fails,” Norton said.
He also criticized what he described as “nonsense” in the current curriculum and proposed that early years should be focused on building academic confidence, not rote testing or political experiments.
Norton highlighted a sobering statistic: of the roughly 15,000 students who sit the Grade 6 exam annually, fewer than 7,000 take the secondary school exam (CSEC) and fewer than 3500 earn at least five CSEC subjects, including English.
“That leaves thousands of our young people floating between failure and hopelessness,” he said.
To address this, he proposes a national system of night schools and re-entry programs, giving dropouts a second chance at education, skill-building, and economic participation.
Beyond access, Norton emphasized that education must also evolve in content and purpose. He wants Guyana’s education system to be more entrepreneurial, scientific, and data-driven, building not just job-seekers but job creators.
He pledged to:
- Expand science and math education at all levels
- Invest in arts and creative industries as pathways for youth
- Integrate technology, applied sciences, and business training into secondary and vocational programs
“We’ve trained people to be employees. Now we must train them to lead, invent, and build,” Norton said.
In his closing remarks, Norton challenged the political establishment to think long-term.
“Our economy is growing, but our children are falling behind. If we don’t fix that, all the oil in the world won’t save us,” he said.
With general elections fast approaching, Norton’s education agenda could become a defining issue for voters. His message was clear: an empowered, educated population is not a luxury for Guyana—it’s the only way forward.
