Spanish dictionaries, textbooks for all pupils from September – Manickchand

Education Minister Priya Manickchand recently highlighted that all primary school children will received government issued Spanish dictionaries and textbooks from September, a move expected to help Guyana achieve its goal of developing a competency in the language.

Guyana’s Head of State, Dr. Irfaan Ali said Spanish would become compulsory in schools. Since then, more pupils and students are being taught the language.

Manickchand, at a recent press conference, acknowledged that staffing challenges remain, as there are not enough trained Spanish teachers to engage all schoolchildren. She, nevertheless, noted that other avenues have been pursued to guarantee that Spanish is taught.

One example of that is the creation of Spanish multimedia learning content by the National Center of Educational Resources Development (NCERD). That content, Manickchand said, can even be used by non-Spanish speaking tutors.

But other measures will unfold soon.

“In September coming, all primary school children will have Spanish resources in their individual bookbags, including a Spanish dictionary and Spanish texts that are age appropriate,” Manickchand said.

Further, she noted that all teachers will soon get Spanish training via the Coursera online learning platform. So that means there will be a larger pool of qualified teachers, able to help children learn the language.