Priya Manickchand’s reassignment should open the door to better outcomes for Guyana’s children. I do not yet know Sonia Parag’s strengths in education, but frankly, almost any change from the status quo is a step forward. For years, the system has lost far too many students across Manickchand’s to terms and rather than engaging professional who could help, she created division, she obfuscated, she used propaganda to change the narrative and the children continued to suffer. That is the crisis that matters.
The public “shock” at Manickchand’s reassignment reveals how out of touch many are with the lived reality of most students and teachers. Under her leadership, messaging often seemed to outrun measurable reform. Relationships with people and groups willing to help were strained, and the ministry’s energy went into public relations over partnership and problem-solving.
Accountability must be consistent. During her tenure, tragedies and systemic failures demanded humility and course correction; the Mahdia dormitory fire remains a searing reminder of the consequences when safety, oversight, and equity lag behind rhetoric. Leadership requires owning both successes and failures.
Walk into many communities; even strongholds of the governing party, and you still find uneven school quality, weak outcomes, and inadequate facilities. A small cluster of well-resourced schools posts the bulk of high achieving students, often buoyed by direct parental investment via extra lessons. That picture should trouble anyone serious about equity.
The recently touted NGSA ‘gains’, approximately a 15% improvement, deserve rigorous scrutiny. If methodologies changed, if moderation shifted, or if reporting thresholds moved, the public has a right to know. Without transparency and an independent audit of scripts, marking schemes, and raw data, any correction next year will be read as “decline” rather than statistical normalization. Minister Parag should immediately commission that audit and communicate findings clearly to the nation and to the President or she will look like a failure when next year’s NGSA results are revealed.
Teachers must be respected, paid fairly, and equipped to teach modern curricula. Training remains behind the times, and content mastery; particularly in mathematics, needs urgent attention through targeted upscaling, coaching, and classroom-embedded support, not the ‘dog and pony’ silliness Priya touted as Math reform. No serious educator could believe the stories she has been touting. Fixing teacher preparation and pay is not a luxury; it is the reform that unlocks every other reform.
My advice to Minister Parag; listen, learn, act, and ask for help. Build trust with teachers, parents, and credible civil society partners. Publish the data, fix the training pipeline, modernize assessments, and invest where the need is greatest, not where the optics are easiest.
Our children deserve a school system that prepares them for the future, not a narrative that papers over persistent gaps. We hope you deliver. We’ll be watching—closely.
