First Lady, Sandra Granger on Monday delivered the keynote address at the opening of a literacy conference at the St. Francis Community Developers Conference Centre in Port Mourant, Corentyne, Berbice.
A release from the Ministry of the Presidency said that the Conference is being hosted by the East Berbice-Corentyne (Region Six) Department of Education, with help from overseas-based Guyanese professors from the Medgar Evers College, City University of New York, Professor Ivor Barker and Dr. Clinton Crawford, with the overall goal of improving literacy rates in the region.
The First Lady said that, “Our children must be given the tools and the opportunity to expand their minds and their horizons, regardless of where they may live in Guyana or their social or economic background… The starting point of education – learning to speak, to understand, and to respond to data in all its shapes and forms and the development in each child the capacity to express her on his thoughts and feelings – begins with literacy, which, for the purpose of this exercise, encompasses literacy and numeracy.”
She contended that improved literacy and education are essential to the development of Guyana, a vision that President David Granger had expressed even before taking office in 2015.
“Just over five years ago, President Granger, in his charge to graduating students of the Cyril Potter College of Education, spoke about the creation of an ‘Education Nation’ –`one in which intelligence prevails over ignorance, cooperation over confrontation, and national integration over communal disintegration.’ He recognises that the development of our country and the full participation of every citizen in that development must be driven by an educated citizenry,” Mrs. Granger said.
As part of the exercise, one teacher from every primary school in Region Six, one reading teacher from each secondary school, and transitional Grade Six teachers will undergo training to enhance their abilities in the teaching and supervision of literacy programmes.
