MOE Strategic Plan 2003-2007

Strategic Issue: To accelerate the mainstreaming/inclusion of persons with special needs into the education system.

Proposed Strategies

1. Appoint a high level task force, with representation from the Ministries of Health, Education and Human Services, to review the current draft national policy on the disabled, especially as it relates to education, and propose an inter-sectoral approach to implementing some of the recommendations.
2. Launch a national awareness campaign.
3. Evaluate each school for exceptional children, and develop a plan to maximise its use.
4. Design programmes in the teacher-training institutions to train the necessary personnel at each level of the system: specialists, special teachers, regular classroom teachers, counselors, etc.
5. Develop special guidelines to help teachers to deal with slow learners, pupils with certain types of disruptive behaviours, and children with exceptional needs.
6. Hold an annual screening exercise in all schools to determine which incoming children are in need of special support.
7. Carry out a national survey to determine the size of the population with exceptional needs.
8. Provide day-care for children with exceptional needs.

Social Issues

Strategic Issue: To increase stakeholders’ level of participation and commitment.

Proposed Strategies

1. Strengthen the National Advisory Commission on Education (NACE) as a permanent stakeholder voice in the system and a way to increase societal support for the Ministry.
2. In each region and school, create a body similar to NACE, with members of these groups (parents, community members) helping to improve their schools and in particular, playing a part in the development of SIPs.
3. At the regional level, encourage and support the development in each school of a programme aimed at helping parents become more conscious of their responsibilities and be better equipped to perform their roles in the family, the school and the community.
4. Evaluate the present situation of PTAs and issue a MoE policy statement supporting them and offering guidelines to all regions and schools.

Strategic Issue: To increase the level of respect for and tolerance of diversity.

Proposed Strategies

1. Include respect for and tolerance of diversity in the whole curriculum from nursery to university, not as a subject, but as a component of the affective behaviour that every child and young person must develop while in school.
2. Ensure that the organisation and registration of all schools always reflect the desire of Guyana to be one people and one nation, i.e., schools must be inclusive, and no child should be kept out on the basis of ethnicity, religion etc.
3. Make the education system as a whole and each of its institutions role models for tolerance, with mechanisms in place to avoid all kinds of discrimination and to foster cultural and social exchanges among all social groups.
4. Ensure that programmes for parents deal with issues of tolerance and diversity.
5. Establish a yearly contest to identify and reward schools and communities that deal best with these issues.
6. Hold special workshops for teachers.

Human Resources Issues

Strategic Issue: To produce competent teachers and give them better support.

Proposed Strategies

1. Appoint a commission with representatives of CPCE, UG and NCERD to develop an action plan to train the teachers the sector needs, using 3 approaches: one, urgent development of options for training a significant number of current teachers, using all available resources and installations, including distance education and regional centres, and with each region making an input into the design of this national effort; two, common approaches among existing institutions to the preparation of teachers entering the system at each level; and three, development of a system for existing teachers to develop professionally.
2. Improve the quality of supervision provided in the regions, and provide personnel and transportation to ensure that each regional office periodically visits the region’s schools.
3. Link schools to nearby institutions capable of communication with the regional educational offices.
4. Develop a means for teachers to obtain the necessary teaching/learning materials for themselves and their students, and in each region, study how its schools can be supplied with energy, water and other critical supplies.
5. In training institutions, pay special attention to the development of a programme to train secondary school teachers in sufficient numbers.

Strategic Issue: To reduce the loss of valuable human resources from the system.

Proposed Strategies

1. Establish an HRD unit in the Ministry, with the goal of improved management of the human resources available and decreasing the losses that the system suffers every year.
2. Establish a training centre in the HRD for all non-teaching needs of the Ministry.
3. Reduce the loss of teachers to a minimum through the following steps:
4. Ensure that each candidate receiving training (in and/or before incorporation into the system) sign a contract making him/her legally obliged to work for a number of years determined by the type of training received. If that condition is not met the person and the hiring agency must pay compensation.
5. Evaluate forms of compensation and other incentives for teachers and other MoE employees, in order to offer the best possible conditions by building a comprehensive and feasible reward system.
6. Launch a campaign to develop a sense of vision throughout the system, and to encourage teachers to remain.
7. Provide teachers willing to go to hinterland and riverain areas with special incentives and support to facilitate their acclimatisation. A proposal should be drafted by the Ministry on this issue and pushed for approval.
8. Provide living quarters for teachers in remote areas.

Management Issues

Strategic Issue: To improve the managerial capabilities of the Ministry of Education.

Proposed Strategies

1. Form a high-level task group having access to any outside help needed and available, with the urgent responsibility of examining the different recommendations on re-organisation of the MoE, and of producing a time-bound plan to introduce whatever changes are considered necessary.
2. To meet all the managerial needs of personnel development, create a training unit in the HRD of the MoE with the necessary human and material resources. The first task of this group should be to develop a comprehensive plan that will lead to the institutionalisation of the unit and the training of the necessary personnel at MoE.
3. Institute training for personnel with managerial and administrative duties through a specific programme included each year in the action plan.
4. In each unit of the MoE, use a participatory process to develop a vision of the unit that fits into the overall picture of the institution and describes its role in the Ministry. From that vision it will derive the activities and changes required to be more effective in the future.
5. Develop an adequate system for the MoE to generate the necessary information for managers and decision-makers. This task should be performed by the MIS department supported by the consultant in the area.
6. Develop a programme for an effective financial system in the Ministry. This task should be carried out by the finance department supported by the consultant in the area , and the initiative should be carefully designed and implemented in a timely fashion.
7. Develop an adequate system of human resources management for the MoE, so that these valuable resources can be used in the best way possible, all relevant information is available to managers and decision-makers in the institution, and actions can be completed in a timely and acceptable manner. This task should be carried out by the personnel department supported by the consultant in the area.

Strategic Issue: To decentralise the management of the system.

Proposed Strategies

1. Name a task force, including REdOs in its membership, to urgently study and propose an adequate structure and mode of functioning for all regional offices, the report to cover all issues related to making these units effective.
2. Institute a training programme to support all the regional offices by providing their personnel with special training as soon as they are selected. The Ministry will form a team to carry out the training in the regions.
3. Organise for each regional office to apply the strategic and action plans to its own region, starting with a school map that will identify its current needs. At the end of an established period the regional offices will have developed their own action plans and will be ready to start implementing them.
4. Institute an approach by the MoE to the TSC to look for ways in which regional directors can be empowered to appoint acting teachers.
5. Clarify lines of authority for the REdOs, defining more clearly the respective roles of the Regional Councils and the Ministry. This initiative might require changes in current legislation.
6. Evaluate procedures for the allocation of funds to make the improvement of the regional services easier.
7. Develop a vision of responsibility and accountability in all regions, based on their commitment to the advancement of education in their regions and localities.

Support Issues

Strategic Issue: To obtain the support of other government agencies and civil society for the MoE at the central, regional and local levels.

Proposed Strategies

1. Obtain central government approval for the MoE to carry out several experiments to see how the new system of management can be implemented. This decision will open the door to a new structure and a different kind of organisation.
2. Create or hire a specialised unit in the MoE to develop and produce public campaigns to obtain support for MoE and the institutional initiatives that will take place in the period. This unit should present plans on the issues identified by MoE as priorities, with the aim of obtaining public support at all times.
3. Maintain a line of communication between the MoF and the MoE, with the best persons from MoE designated to have systematic exchanges with their counterparts from MoF, in order to be able to secure its support at all times. The same needs to be done with the PSM in order to help them to understand whatever changes are undertaken in the MoE. It is important to have their support at all times so that structures can be revitalised.
4. Develop a mechanism whereby the regions can appoint their acting teachers with final approval coming from the TSC. There is a very strong recommendation by several people that the REdOs be given the power to appoint acting teachers. At present, the Commission is the only agency empowered by the Constitution to carry out this function, although it has previously delegated this authority.

Strategic Issue: To obtain adequate financial resources.

Proposed Strategies

1. Use the proposed public awareness unit as a fund raising unit, after some special training.
2. Improve the existing working relationship of the MoE with the MoF and seek ways to improve how resources are assigned to and managed by MoE.
3. Institute financial planning in order to minimise problems in the annual development of educational activities caused by delays in the approval of the yearly national budgets.
4. Improve the MoE’s rapport with donors and insert them into the dynamics of the strategic plan in a way that permits their grants and loans to be used in a timely manner, and in the best interests of the educational initiatives of the country.
5. List possible contributors to the educational effort and start or develop relationships with them.
6. Start several national programmes, including an adoption programme (enterprises adopting particular schools); donations for specific projects; a national book fund; and development of teaching material.
7. Consider the introduction of contingency fees at certain levels and/or new special taxes.

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B. MAJOR MOE PROJECTS

LIST OF MAJOR MINISTRY OF EDUCATION PROJECTS IN GUYANA

Name of Project	Donor/Loan Agency	Value of Project	Status/Remarks
1.Primary Education Improvement Project(PEIP)	IDB (Loan)	US$51.million	This project originally involved the construction/rehabilitation, `equipping and furnishing of about 52 schools, development of textbooks, training of education personnel, strengthening of CPCE, NCERD and some Central Ministry Departments. IDB’s contribution was US$46 million.Over 60 schools have been constructed or repaired. Civil works included construction of a new library at CPCE and studios for distance education programmes and office space at NCERD.Because of a significant reduction in construction costs approximately US$23 million was made available for additional activities which conformed to the objectives of the original programme. These included the introduction of computers in some schools. Another major component is strengthening the institutional capacity of the Ministry. The project comes to an end this year (2002).
2.Guyana In-Service Distance Education project (GUIDE).	DFID	446,000 (Phase 1) G$60 million to date (Phase 2)	This project aims at improving the quality of education at the secondary level by providing in-service school based training for untrained, unqualified practicing teachers using a mix of distance education methods and face to face sessions with tutors.The current phase of this project involves approximately XXX teachers in Regions 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10. This was preceded by a pilot phase in Regions 5 and 6 from 1995 to 1997.
3.Secondary Schools Reform Programme.(SSRP).	(Loan) IDA	US$19 million (approximately)	This project aims at a significant upgrading of education in the first three grades of the secondary level. It is being pilot tested in12 schools. Components of the project include curriculum reform, acquisition of equipment and teaching/learning materials (includingtextbooks), teacher training, and institutional strengthening of the MoE, in particular the MIS.Training of teachers and school administrators has started and work is also ongoing on the design and costing of repairs of special pilot and non-pilot schools.
4.Guyana Education Access Project.	DFID (grant)	Approximately US$14.6 million	This project supports MOE's policy of implement -ing a common curriculum in the first three grades at the secondary level. It will be closely articulated with the SSRP which has similar objectives. Curriculum/texts etc. developed for the SSRP pilot schools will be introduced into schools in these two towns. Some school improvement planning and teacher training strategies will be common to both projects. Approximately 3000 students, a con- siderable proportion of whom would be under-achieving male students, will benefit from the project.
5.Guyana “Basic Education Teacher Project”	CIDA	C$4.5 million	This project focuses on strengthening the system for in-service unqualified primary school teachers. Because of the large numbers of unqualified teachersIn the remote hinterland and riverain areas, the projectWill lay emphasis on enabling the teachers trainingInstitute to develop a distance education capacity toOffer the in-service training through a combination of print based learning modules, local tutorials, and a summer session that will be classroom based.The project will also provide for technical assistance inTesting and measurement and in the training of schoolInspectors and principals.

NOTE: Urban in the sense that the project is to be located in two towns; however, the benefits will extend to the nearby rural communities.

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