Education Ministry to expand CAPE, learning channel, and launch radio station next year

Committed to strengthening education for the nation’s children, the Ministry of Education is planning to expand the Guyana Learning Channel, the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) programme, and launch a new radio station next year in an effort to keep every child engage in learning.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand made these disclosures yesterday during a media brunch at the Cara Lodge Hotel. The event which was held under theme “Defying COVID-19: Redefining Education” saw the Minister highlighting work done by her Ministry for the past year and plans for the next year and beyond.

Speaking of plans, Minister Manickchand mentioned that for next year, the Government intends to expand the CAPE programme to Regions One, Six, and Nine and to the Annandale Secondary School. Just recently, two secondary schools, were commissioned as CAPE schools making them the first in their respective regions to be so launched. These schools were the Anna Regina Secondary School in Region Two and the West Demerara Secondary School in Region Three. Already a number of students have been enrolled in this programme at those schools.

“We also intend to and will launch shortly 99.9 FM, that is a radio channel dedicated to educational content, and that is currently being set up with a new studio, as well as the technical and logistical arrangement that have to be made,” she shared.

Another aspect of learning, which the Ministry is planning to expand is the Guyana Learning Channel. “We are also expanding the Guyana Learning channel in two ways instead of one channel, which you are able to access now. It will be six channels dedicated to learning and these channels will be expanded to every single Amerindian, Hinterland and Riverain communities,” the Minister related.

She added that already the Ministry has procured enough of the materials to set up the channels for every Amerindian village.

Further, the Minister revealed that the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) training will be expanded in 2022.

“In accordance with, CPCE will be expanded, the Cyril Potter College of Education is the only teaching training centre in the country. Usually about 535 students are accepted for face-to-face learning every year, this year because we gone online, we have more than 2,500 students who have begun their first year learning,” Manickchand explained.

With the expansion in the pipeline, the Minister said that in the next four years, the country will be able to produce more teachers than “we have ever put out before”.

source:https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/