A path breaking study by McKinsey & Company for the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) repeated what has now become received wisdom: ‘The capacity of countries … to compete in the global knowledge economy increasingly depends on whether they can meet a fast-growing demand for high-level skills. This in turn hinges on significant improvements in the quality of schooling outcomes and a more equitable distribution in learning opportunities’ (How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top. September 2007).
Partly for this reason, everywhere, even among education systems considered the best in the world, there is talk of the need for reform, and this and forthcoming articles will deal with aspects of this matter in relation to Guyana. The issue of study support in the form of ‘extra lessons’ is again
