The Guyana government says all schools will re-open April 25, as the country seeks to return to normality two years after recording the first case of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has killed 1, 226 and infected 63,195 others since then.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand said all systems are being put in place to re-open schools to address the two years of learning loss.
“Some skills that were acquired will be lost and forgotten and you might even have the phenomenon of dropouts presenting itself in larger numbers than we have ever seen before, and we are seeing indications of all of those things so are we ready… We are making sure of course that schools are ready to be re-opened fully from April 25 after the Easter holiday.”
She said to ensure teachers and students are prepared for the new term, the ministry has implemented a staggered system that will see students revisiting studies from their previous grade within a 20- week period, before moving on to the new term’s curriculum.
Additionally, the ministry is working to ensure that every school is equipped with the tools and equipment to be fully functional before the new term commences.
Manickchand, speaking on the sidelines of the newly launched artificial intelligence leadership program, ‘Spark’, on Monday, also announced that a new program will be rolled out nationally to target literacy loss in the four core subjects.
“You’re going to see an assault on illiteracy, you will see an entire national program rolled out to recover from the literacy loss we would have had and all the gains we would have made that went down the drain in two years.
“Every single student is going to be diagnosed, we are issuing a diagnostic for Mathematics, English, Social Studies, and Science – the four cores. Every student will be diagnosed, and each student will be attended to individually to make sure that we recover from the COVID loss.”
Schools in Guyana were closed in March 2020 and Manickchand said the pandemic provided the ministry with the opportunity to review its literacy program.
Meanwhile, the education minister said the “Spark” aimed at introducing students to Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology will ensure that rounded individuals are developed was launched today at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).
The program is a product of collaboration between the Ministry of Education and the LEAD Mindset, JASECI Labs and BCS Technology.
Manickchand said the government believes citizens, especially young people, should be given the platform and the environment to flourish and to be all that they can be for themselves, their families, communities, and the world.
“So, this program here, this partnership that we’re entering into, we jumped on it immediately because we see the potential in it. Not only will this allow you to be creators and innovators, but we hope it is going to make you all into leaders,” Minister Manickchand remarked.
She told the ceremony that students exit the program with more consciousness about how their skills, talents and God-given abilities can be used to make changes, provide solutions, and to improve their wellbeing. A total of 136 students will participate in the program.
JASECI Labs founder, Jason Mars, said the program will run for eight weeks with two tracks, one that focuses on developing the leadership and innovative mindset while on the other, participants will be exposed to the AI technical track.
He said the AI track will teach the students how to code and use the same instruments used by the biggest companies in the world to build AI products and services. He said that along the AI track, students will be required to build a real AI product that could be launched to the world. According to Mars, who is also a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Michigan, such products when sold to the world on a global scale can funnel economic outcomes and value from the global market into Guyana and the region.
“It’s our ambition and in my expectation that these creations themselves can then turn into real products that could be sold by young entrepreneurs that come out of this program. So, they’ll have the right mindset, and they’ll have the right skills to create software,” he said.
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