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Guyana Education Access Project (Linden)
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Linden NewsletterApril 1999 |
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Project ManagementThe setting up of the Guyana Education Access Project here in Linden is going ahead smoothly. The Offices for the Regional Adviser have been set up at the Education Department Annex on Wismar Street. One of the initial activities over the first three months here in Linden has been that of community consultations. We have held 4 community meetings have had good ideas generated from all of them. These are now being incorporated into the Masterplan and we hope to be able to share the Masterplan with the community and the schools sometime in May for further feedback. In April we had three consultants in to do the Baseline Survey which will give us the information and the tools with which to measure the success of the project as we go and in its final evaluation in 5 years time. The first meeting of the Regional Co-ordination Committee has taken place and this body will now meet every two months to inform and guide the course of the interventions that are proposed under GEAP. Parents, Teachers, the Regional Education Office, the local community, School Administration staff are all represented on the committee. Infrastructure & ResourcesThe plans for the new school buildings are underway and we hope to have initial designs for Linden Foundation and the renovations at Multi available for all members of the community to make comments on by the 3rd week in May. The current projection is that the new Linden Foundation school will take some 2 1/2 years to complete from design to opening. Multi would take some 10 months. The other infrastructure work at New Silvercity and Mackenzie would start on 2000 and 2001 respectively. These are still tentative dates only but hopefully gives people an idea of the timings of this aspect of the project. Currently book orders are being produced in order to ensure adequate resources are available to all schools. We hope to have initial resources into schools by the beginning of the next Academic year (September) though we are limited by the time it takes to print and transport the books. School ManagementWe hope to start a programme of school and regional educational management training in the middle July. This would involve training and a conference/workshop with Regional Staff and the Headteachers from both the project areas, Linden and Corriverton. Through this process we hope to assist the secondary schools in developing their plans for the next year and assist them in offering students the best education possible. |
Teacher EducationThe Voluntary Service Overseas Volunteers are now in place and familiarising themselves with the Linden education system. Jean Hales, an English Teacher Trainer is currently based out of One Mile Primary and Stephen Wilkinson is currently at New Silvercity Secondary. Stephen will be responsible for the Guidance and Counselling programme and also the development of computer resources for all schools. Their work in those schools is to familiarise themselves with the current systems. Future work will involve secondary and primary tops, and assisting CPCE and GUIDE to implement their programmes and also to prepare teachers for the transition from Primary to Secondary once there are sufficient places for all students in the secondary system. Jean and Stephen have so far participated in the GUIDE launch and are currently planning their programmes. They hope to visit all schools in the coming months to discuss training needs and assist in the development of book lists. Community DevelopmentA third VSO Volunteer is Yvonne Joseph who is a Community Development Specialist. She will be responsible for ensuring that the community is involved in the education of their children through greater participation in the schools and also giving parents the skills to help with the education of their children at home. She is currently based in the Regional Education Office with the School’s Welfare Officer, Ms. Donna Simon.She has been working on the MSSI programme and participated in the workshop at LICHAS in April. She is currently working with a group of Community Researchers, who will assist GEAP in measuring the project and getting feedback from the communities on various aspects of the project as it develops. In the next month she will be hoping to meet with all the PTA’s in Linden to start to discuss some of the issues that their members feel are important and hoping to assist in the process of helping parents to use and support the education system here in Linden. Contacting GEAPMr Ed Denham (Regional Adviser)
Mrs Gloria Britton
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Guyana Education Access Project (Linden)
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Linden NewsletterDecember 1999 |
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InfrastructureOver the past 6 months, the infrastructure programme has slowly taken shape. Plans for all the schools were presented to a selection of teachers, parents and students. The architects have taken the resulting suggestions and are now incorporating them into the next draft of the plans. For the large-scale projects, the pre-qualification process (the process whereby we select suitable contracts that can then tender bids for the work) is now underway and adverts will be going out before the end of this year. Tenders are already being submitted for the work needed at Christianburg Multilateral to install computers and we are expecting the Regional Tender Board to make a decision this year with work beginning soon after. We hope everything will be complete by the end of Feb 2000. Primary Tops AmalgamationDespite some disappointments, GEAP is continuing to support the Regional Education Department in its plans to amalgamate the Primary Tops. We are currently drawing up plans to renovate the Old St. Aidan’s Building and provide new toilet blocks. DfID have agreed in principle to releasing the G$5 million that is required. We hope to provide a good learning environment for all Primary Tops students on both banks and also the possibility of these students taking certain subjects at CxC. Though there have been delays we ask for patience. Tender documents are being prepared for the work needed to renovate the building to accommodate up to 400 secondary school students who do not have a place in a secondary school. We hope this work will start in the New Year. The process of amalgamation is still ongoing despite the fact that there has been no move to new accommodation. The Teachers are actively participating in a variety of programmes being delivered by the VSO teacher trainers in conjunction with LLRC. Students are wearing the new uniforms. Books are on order. Things are on the move. Community DevelopmentMany of you will have been involved in the training and workshops given by Mary Surridge. Through those activities, a community development strategy has been formulated and Yvonne Joseph will be looking at ways to take this forward. Currently, GEAP is assisting PATH to run another batch of its “Parents as Teachers at Home” programme. We wish all the participants the best of luck in their course. The new millennium will also see a start of a programme to look at PTA support and development. Yvonne will continue to build on the work of Mary Surridge and will be making further visits to PTA’s in the coming months. GEAP is also assisting in the development of an Oral History project. This is a programme to research into key aspects of Linden’s History and to investigate its future. We are also hoping to capture some of the stories, folk or otherwise, so that they can be a learning resource in schools. Yvonne will be looking to all sections of the community for information for this. GEAP has also been supporting parent education workshops at New Silvercity. School ResourcesI am afraid to say that there have been some delays in the initial batch of textbooks that were ordered. We hope to have the problems resolved soon, and so a wide range of books will be available for teachers to use in preparation for their lessons. These books will also allow teachers to make informed decisions about what further books they wish to order. As soon as this first order of books arrives we will then start to look at the next order which will hopefully contain class sets. We are also drawing up lists of equipment for Maths, Industrial Arts, Art & Craft, Home Economics, Technical Drawing and Science. We have gone ahead with an order of Science Equipment for Linden Foundation and New Silvercity. We have supplied materials for new Technical Drawing boards and agreed a programme of servicing for the IA equipment at Multi. A range of maths equipment for all schools is also being ordered. |
Teacher TrainingGreat strides have been taken in the development of the teacher training and support programme. Jean is now conducting weekly sessions with Primary Tops teachers in English as well as delivering sessions at CPCE. Siva is following a similar schedule with Maths teachers and is also inputting into CPCE. Stephen Wilkinson has embarked on a variety of programmes. He has started computer training with key IT people who will take on responsibility for computers in the schools once they are in place. He is also working with a number of other people who are relative computer novices. As we only have two computers available for training, it has been limited. Once the computer lab at Multi is ready these programmes will expand. Stephen has also been facilitating staff development programmes in New Silvercity and Multi and hopes to expand these to Linden Foundation and Mackenzie High. Since the last newsletter, 3 new VSO teacher trainers have joined us:
Management TrainingIn late August GEAP and the Regional Education Department provided two weeks of management training and planning for Education Officers and Head Teachers. The Education Officers spent a valuable week with Pat Murgatroyd (a consultant from the UK) looking at Regional Education Development Planning and by the end of the week had written a Regional Development Plan. Similarly the Headteachers also got together and developed their initial School Improvement Plans. They are now in the process of developing these plans further, and getting ideas from a variety of sources, parents and students included. Over the coming months we hope to continue to build and review these plans. Other ActivitiesWe have had two visits from the British High Commissioner, one of which was to look at amalgamation and participate in the Shakespeare Festival organised by Jean Hales, LLRC and GARLAND. A number of consultants have been looking at Teacher Training, Vocational Training and Community Development. All in all, it has been a busy time, but there are busier times ahead! Contacting GEAPMr Ed Denham (Regional Adviser)
Mrs Gloria Britton
Ms Yvonne Joseph (Community Development)
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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
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