President floats plan to introduce E-schooling programme for some communities

Weeks after Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo pitched the idea of the Government considering E-schooling, President Irfaan Ali today confirmed an eventual move in that direction for some communities.

Speaking to residents of the Santa Aratack community earlier today, the President said he has already received a proposal for e-schooling, noting that it is becoming necessary in Guyana.

When Vice President Jagdeo spoke on the issue recently, he floated several models of e-schooling which included giving parents the option to choose whether their child should continue with classroom education or join classes virtually.

He also proposed a voucher system for parents to send their children to their preferred private school.

One of the ideas put forward by President Ali today, is to make the skills of some teachers available virtually for the wider student population to benefit.

“We want our children to be in a continuous learning environment and when we speak of a digital school, I have the proposal that came into me last night, don’t doubt it, it will be done and why do we need it? If we have the best Math teacher in X- School, why mustn’t that skill of that children be available to all the children. We can deploy that skill, digitally, electronically, so all our children can have access to that gifted skill,” the President stated.

The President said the skillset of teachers should be used for the greater good and must not be confined to a single school. He said that is one of the reasons behind the government’s heavy investment in education.

The President said there could be transformation, while the traditional ways of teaching and learning are maintained.

“Digitization and digital education and e-communication, help to shorten and bridge the divide so that we can have more equitable access not just to education. The school and the furniture are not education, they are components of infrastructure of education, education also involves skillset—skillset among teachers, skillset among children,” the President said.

Residents of the Santa Aratack mission were also told by the President that despite several challenges, his government has been able to surpass many of its manifesto promises.

“We confronted all of these things and yet, in confronting all of it, we were able to fulfill completely all of our manifesto promises to you. Not only have we fulfilled it but we are surpassing it. They doubt it, that we could ever get 50,000 house lots, they doubt it that we would increase old age pension to where it is, we silenced all the doubters,” the President stated.