Gov’t picks private schools to test new curriculum

The Government has selected two private secondary schools to test a new curriculum that is designed to educate students about environmental matters, including the Green State Development Strategy.

The Department of Environment on Wednesday handed over the revised Curriculum Guides to the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) during a ceremony held at the Herdmanston Lodge in Queenstown, Georgetown.

The revised guides started in October last year and were recently completed by the Department of Environment in four subject areas – English, Social Studies, Science and Agricultural Science. It will allow students to better understand Guyana’s natural resources and the concepts of climate change.

“Apart from engaging NCERD, we have engaged some private secondary schools.

“These schools are main schools – Marian Academy and School of the Nations – and these schools have all demonstrated a real desire to reform their own curriculum,” Environmental Policy and Education Coordinator, Alvin Doris said.

The Project Manager, Michelle Klass said the students will benefit from the updated curriculums as it will not only incorporate the Rio Conventions but also important aspects of the Green State Development Strategy.

“Mainstreaming the environment into our curriculum and our education system is one of the major outputs of this project.

“There is an entire component that addresses this aspect and we have since developed an education module that will be utilised to develop a manual to train our teachers at the secondary and post-secondary levels,” Klass said.

The Director for NCERD, Jennifer Cumberbatch, said they are grateful for the revised curriculums.

“Curriculums in Guyana have not, as you have heard, been renewed for several years and they are so many changes that have happened over these years.

“Long ago in the 80’s we were not hearing anything much about climate change, we didn’t know anything much about green state development but these are important changes that must be reflected in our new curriculum,” the Director said.

The Department of Environment is implementing a four-year project which commenced in 2017.

The project aims to strengthen technical capacities for mainstreaming and monitoring the achievement of the Rio Conventions’ objectives through policy coordination.

The Rio conventions include the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.