As Guyana weighs education reform, an academic, education advocate and parent is urging families and policymakers to rethink long-held assumptions about success and move beyond an education system dominated by grades and examinations.
In an opinion piece published in Kaieteur News titled “Preparing the Whole Child for Success in a Changing World,” Karen Abrams AA— MBA holder, doctoral candidate, and Executive Director and co-founder of STEMGuyana — argued that traditional measures of achievement, from the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) to (Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC) passes, no longer reflect the full range of skills children need to thrive in a rapidly changing, technology-driven world.
Abrams, who plays a crucial role in advancing modern approaches to education in Guyana through STEMGuyana, has been actively involved in developing both curricular and extracurricular pathways that build children’s intellectual, leadership and problem-solving competencies for the 21st century. Her work focuses on equipping young Guyanese with the skills required not only to pass exams but to lead, innovate and adapt in a globalised economy.
She said the issue resonates deeply with parents striving to prepare their children for life beyond school. Drawing on her experience raising four children, Abrams noted that while her family placed strong emphasis on academics and structured extracurricular activities, reflection revealed that “what stands out most is not any single subject or achievement, but the environments they were exposed to.”
She contended that many parents feel pressured to engineer outcomes through constant oversight, tutoring and performance monitoring, but decades of research in developmental psychology and neuroscience suggest this approach is misguided.
“You do not design your child. You guide them. You place them in pastures where they can grow,” Abrams wrote, stressing that environment matters far more than many parents are willing to admit. She added that this understanding should relieve parents of guilt and refocus attention on the conditions that actually shape long-term success.
Abrams challenged Guyana’s culture of academic obsession, noting that success is narrowly defined by grades, placements and rankings. While well-intentioned, she said this model ignores mounting evidence that social and emotional development is central to both academic performance and life outcomes.
Her position is supported by international research. A systematic review of early childhood social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions found that children exposed to structured SEL programmes showed significant gains in emotional regulation, social competence, behavioural self-control and early learning outcomes. Broader meta-analyses of school-based SEL programmes involving more than 200,000 students globally show consistent improvements in emotional well-being, positive behaviour and academic achievement.
International organisations including UNICEF, the OECD and the World Bank have similarly urged education systems to integrate cognitive, social and emotional development, citing evidence that skills such as perseverance, self-control, leadership and collaboration are strongly linked to productivity, health and civic participation.
Abrams argued that these skills are becoming even more decisive in the digital age. With artificial intelligence increasingly able to level the academic playing field, she said character, judgment and adaptability will distinguish those who succeed.
“Leadership skills matter,” she wrote, citing longitudinal studies such as the Harvard Grant Study and research by economist James Heckman showing that non-cognitive skills are often stronger predictors of adult success than test scores. She also pointed to World Economic Forum reports that consistently rank collaboration, emotional intelligence and conflict management among the most sought-after workplace skills.
She was critical of Guyana’s broader social culture, arguing that schools and institutions often reward dominance over dialogue and silence over cooperation. “Children who cannot work with others, manage disagreement, or navigate differences will struggle regardless of how many subjects they pass,” Abrams warned.
On digital fluency, she stressed that meaningful technology use — including understanding artificial intelligence and learning to think critically with digital tools — must now sit alongside literacy and numeracy as core skills. OECD research shows students who combine strong literacy with purposeful technology use outperform peers reliant on rote learning or unstructured screen time.
Ultimately, Abrams said, preparing the “whole child” means recognising that academic achievement and character development are complementary, not competing goals. Cognitive development, emotional maturity, ethical grounding, creativity and adaptability must be nurtured together.
“For Guyanese parents fixated on success, this is the uncomfortable truth,” she wrote. “You cannot engineer brilliance. What you can do is cultivate the right conditions.”
Her message poses a challenge not only to parents, but to educators and policymakers: if Guyana wants its children to thrive in an uncertain, technology-driven future, it must stop raising exam-takers and start intentionally developing whole human beings.
