Minister of Education Shaik Baksh says more focus will be given to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) this year in keeping with the ministry’s five-year strategic plan.

According to a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) press release Baksh made these comments at a forum for head teachers hosted at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development.

He said the key components of the plan are making the TVET curriculum more relevant to the world of work, increasing access to the programme, continuing special training programme for TVET instructors, improving and upgrading physical facilities and equipment in all TVET institutions, expanding the literacy programme in all TVET institutions, equipping TVET institutions to deliver information communication technology programmes and increasing the number of schools offering the ‘Skills for Life’ programme to out-of-school youth.

Baksh said this year two new technical and vocational education schools will be built in regions three and five. Additionally, enrolment at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) will be doubled and more attention will be placed on the delivery of distance education. CPCE will also be collaborating with the University of Guyana (UG) to reduce the four-year Bachelor’s Degree Pro-gramme in Education to two years. This corresponds with plans to replace the Trained Teachers’ Certificate with an Associate Degree in Education.

Also, the Secondary Competency Certificate Programme (SCCP) is a technical and vocational initiative that offers an alternative pathway for secondary school students.

It is a corrective programme, implemented to address students’ weaknesses in literacy and numeracy, especially those leaving primary schools. Baksh noted that a Literacy Unit was recently established in the ministry to ensure the programme’s success by closely monitoring schools where it is being implemented. The programme will undergo both internal and external examinations. The minister urged teachers to work to the best of their ability to implement the programme and to transform the performance of low achievers leaving primary schools.

Currently, the SCCP is implemented in Grade 10 but the minister posited that it should be implemented in Grade Nine to equip students who drop out before completion of the secondary cycle with a certificate that will make them employable. The programme also aims to curb the large drop-out rate at the secondary level.