Smart Classroom opens at QC; 20 more expected across Guyana

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand on Wednesday declared the second smart classroom in Guyana open at Queen’s College in Georgetown.

The classroom, which is the second of its kind in the public education sector, will not only benefit Queen’s College but will be used to reach students in other secondary schools across Guyana who can benefit from lessons which they may not be able to receive in their respective schools.

Manickchand said the intention is to eventually have a smart classroom rolled out in every high school across the country and so the Ministry of Education is on track to deliver 20 more such classrooms within the coming weeks.

She said that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown how important technology is to the education sector.

“COVID has underscored how much we need advances and additions to our traditional chalk and talk and it would have come in very useful if we had these features in the classroom, but we cannot wring our hands for what we don’t have, but we must recognise it as a failure and move on aggressively to rolling out these classrooms across the country.”

Minister Manickchand encouraged that persons should see COVID as an opportunity to do better for the country by improving systems and implementing initiatives to improve the education sector.

She told members of the staff and administration of the school that they now have a duty to share knowledge and information using the smart classroom to as many students and teachers as possible.

During Wednesday’s launch, Ms. Dianne Henry taught an English ‘B’ lesson while engaging students physically in the smart classroom and those that were at home. (Modified press release from Ministry of Education)