Ten years on: Have we left the Secondary Schools Reform Project behind?
By Walter B Alexander, A.A.
During the conception of the Secondary School Reform Project (SSRP) in the early 1990s and during the life of the 1996-2004 Project, it was envisaged that initiatives undertaken in the twelve (12) Pilot Schools would be replicated throughout the secondary school system. Indeed the Mission Statement of SSRP spells it out in the words “The Ministry of Education through the SSRP seeks to Improve the Quality, Equity and Efficiency of Secondary Education in Guyana.” Moreover, the then Minister of Education, the late Dr. Dale Bisnauth, said in September 1997 that “the focus is to raise the levels of performance of weak schools, not to lower the performance of the better schools.” With the passage of time (ten years) since the closure of the Project and with the annual expenditure of billions of Guyana Dollars on education following Current and Capital Budgets, it is now apposite to take stock. And since we operate in an examination-oriented education system, the principal yardstick to be used is the Results of the CSEC (Carib-bean Secondary Educa-tion Certificate) Exami-nation.
However, since examination results must not be considered in a vacuum, it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach (as SSRP had advocated in Pilot Schools) and consider for individual schools the nature of the inputs, the processes in administering the school, and the outcomes in terms of student achievement. Firstly,the inputs to be considered are mainly the student intake and the resources,
