Publication: Universal Secondary Education (USE) in Guyana
Date
2008-06
ISSN
Published
2008-06
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
In 2002, Guyana adopted a broadly-based
five year plan (2003-2007) to achieve universal secondary
education (USE), with a strategy to convert secondary
classes in primary schools and grade 7-10 community high
schools into General Secondary Schools (GSS) in which all
students could present for the Caribbean Examination
Certificate (CXC) or an alternative competency-based
Certificate. Current status of secondary education (chapter
one) summarizes the performance of public schools in Guyana
against the Ministry of Education (MOE) policy on universal
secondary education (2002), trends evident in the annual
statistical digests, and the broad issues presented to
Senior MOE officers on 13 December and to the Minister on 19
December 2007. Improving secondary student participation
(chapter two) examines national and regional trends in
population, enrollment, low levels of apparent transition
from primary to secondary schools, poor secondary school
entry examination (SSEE) results and issues related to the
"size" of secondary schools. Upgrading and
qualifying teachers (chapter three) identifies small school
enrollment issues in earlier chapters with the enrollment
required to offer a viable secondary curriculum, improve
teacher qualification/training and reduce attrition rates.
Student learning outcomes (chapter four) links poor student
attendance, poor primary (SSEE) examination outcomes,
limited secondary curriculum offerings, low rates of
survival from grade 7 to grade 11 to the reported CXC
results for Guyana. Schools and infrastructure (chapter
five) presents the assessment that low student
"demand" and a shortage of qualified teachers
prevents Guyana achieving USE. Increasing the
"supply" of secondary school places would not
achieve USE unless other investments are made to improve the
pool of suitably qualified students. Secondary education
resources and budgets (chapter six) reviews education
expenditure as aproportion of budget and the
salary/non-salary recurrent expenditure for primary
("Tops") and secondary schools.
Citation
“World Bank. 2008. Universal Secondary Education (USE) in Guyana. © Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/619f88dd-198f-59e3-98a4-31626f7a9c3a License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”