…parents, community workers making big contributions
By Alva Solomon
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reshape the lives of Guyanese, the children of the hinterland regions of the country have faced the brunt of the challenges in the bridging of the gap created by the absence of face-to- face learning.
While some children at villages where WIFI internet services are available are able to keep in touch with the classes offered by the Ministry of Education via the Zoom app, some students in the more remote areas with no internet access have been trying to make the best of the resources made available to them.
The Ministry of Education has been working assiduously to remedy the gaps in the learning process and in some cases Education Minister, Priya Manickchand has taken a personal effort by travelling to remote areas across the country to get a personal understanding of the situation.
For the month of April,2021 schools will remain closed to fate-to-face learning except for Grades 10, 11 and 12 students. In some villages across the Hinterland areas of the country, the efforts of all, including the teachers, parents and village leaders have been the highlight of a new system of learning. One such village is Fair View, a small community of 400 plus residents near the Kurupukari Crossing on the Essequibo River.
The village is home to descendants of the Makushi, Wapishana and the Patamona nations and according to residents, it is one of the most peaceful villages in the area. It is also the only village located within the Iwokrama Forest Reserve.
According to school-teacher, Quado Vancooten, since last September students have been meeting with their teachers under strict COVID-19 regulations which include the mandatory wearing of masks and sanitisation of hands.
The Kurupukari Primary School has a total population of 65 students while there while there are five students who attend the secondary top department of the school. The Grade Six students are a priority given that they will sit the National Grade Six Examinations in August this year and they have been attending classes from 0900hrs to 11:30hrs, three days a week. This arrangement has been ongoing for several weeks as the exam draws near.
To date no COVID-19 cases has been recorded in the village, which the villager credits to the vigorous enforcement and adherence to measures which have been put in place at Fair View. One standout effort is that of the Community Support Officers (CSOs) who have been delivering worksheets to students and their parents around the village. This is being done for the nursery level to Grade 4 and Vancooten noted that this points to an all-round effort on the part of the villagers.
“IT has been a good response but some parents admit that they weren’t able to receive any formal education in their time so they were having difficulties in helping their children with the work sheets,” Vancooten said.
The Iwokrama Centre has also stepped in to ensure that students occupy themselves meaningfully via informative sessions such as he arts.
In some cases within the Rupununi region, the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) has played its part in ensuring the students participate in educational exercises.
In the Deep South Rupununi Village of Aishalton, similar efforts have been undertaken by both parents and teachers who have been working hand-in-hand to remedy the situation. Aishalton is located some 2 to 3 hours by road from the town of Lethem. The village is home to Wapishana and Macushi descendants.
According Immaculeta Casimero, the village as a whole have made a valiant effort. Casimero, who sits on the South Rupununi District Council, said that teachers have been working around the clock ever since the pandemic and many have never stopped working with the children. She said the teachers have been placing more emphasis on engaging not only the students who can attend school but also the parents of all students in the absence of normal class sessions.
In some cases, the parents would spend hours with the teachers as the latter would go through the worksheets. The parents would then take the work material home and work with the children during a week-long period. The completed work would then be sent back to the teachers for marking and comments.
Casimero said the process posed a challenge for families at villages in outlying areas of Aishalton. This was mainly due to transportation problems but she noted that a representative from the community would uplift worksheets and other learning material to take back to the villages. “Generally, in Aishlaton the parents and teachers work together,” she said noting that the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) has been working along with the school to ensure the challenges are addressed.
She expressed appreciation to the Ministry of Education in making worksheets available for students but she also noted that there are shortages in some cases and this she said needs to be addressed. “This is something the ministry needs to improve on to ensure adequate worksheets are available for the students,” she added.
Shortage of worksheets is one of the major challenges faced by some far-flung communities in the North West District. At the Arakaka Primary School, in Region One the issue is one which was brought to the attention of the authorities in recent months.
It was noted by some teachers in the area that worksheets for the 2020 September term were only dispatched to the area in January 2020. In some cases, a number of mistakes have been observed on the worksheets while some parents lamented that the education ministry could have improved the quality of the paper used for printing of the school work. “They sent some newspaper type worksheets and it got some mistakes with the printing and also the information,” a parent at Port Kaituma in Region One told the Village Voice News.
At Kwebana, another remote community in Region One, teachers have made it their duty to ensure the students there who are preparing for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations complete their school-cased assessments in time for marking. The students have been attending school daily since last November when face-to-face sessions restarted at the school for Grades 10 and 11 students. The quality of the paper used as worksheets has also been an issue which teachers and parents of that school highlighted during a visit to the area in January this year. Recently, the Ministry of Education provided the school with a projector to aid the teaching process at the school.
The Ministry of Education has received a number of tablets from the private sector to augment its education delivery efforts. The ministry delivered the tablets to various remote communities where there is no internet access.
Last week, Minister Manickchand visited the Rupununi and during her visit, a number of pre-loaded tablets were delivered to Grades 10 and 11 students enrolled at schools there. The pre-loaded tablets contain several learning resources and material approved by the Ministry of Education, all tailored to help pupils and students to prepare for the upcoming examinations.
The distribution of the tablets is a direct response to the needs of these students, as they have been set aback tremendously since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
