Minister Manickchand – Education Ministry aiming for 100% enrollment at the nursery level

Nursery Education in Guyana celebrated 45 years’ yesterday since its existence in a formal
setting. In observance, the Education Ministry hosted a National Symposium on Play-Based
Pedagogy under the theme “Revisiting Play in the Nursery School System in Guyana:
Opportunities for Inclusion and Responsive Programming.”
Education Minister, Priya Manickchand addressed the event hosted at the Pegasus Hotel Guyana.
She said that nursery education is the most important stage of a child’s development.
Manickchand went on to point out that Guyana has the highest level of enrollment in the
Commonwealth at 85% and is continuously pushing to have 100% access to such facilities.
“We’re at a good place where we can see how we can use the experiences over the last 45 years
to make sure we get it right. We know that access remains a problem especially in far-flung
hinterland communities and although attendance at nursery school is not compulsory like
primary and secondary, we want to get to a place where we can make it compulsory and have the
facilities that will allow us to do that so in the Ministry, our eyes are set on 100% accessibility to
nursery schools,” Manickchand explained.

The education minister noted that this is also the most important period for the teaching
profession since there is a need to respond to students in different settings. “If our teachers aren’t
where they want to be, with training and improvement, and have no desire to get there, then
we’re destroying every single child that comes out of your class and not just up to your year-end
but all through their lives,” she added. Assistant Chief Education Officer (Literacy), Ms.
Samantha Williams stressed that every child must develop the readiness skills and attitude for
lifelong learning at the nursery level. The event was a collaboration between the National Centre
of Educational Resources Development (NCERD), UNICEF-Guyana, University of Guyana,
Syracuse University-USA, The Pennsylvania State University-USA and Bloomsburg University-
USA.
Nicolas Pron of UNICEF pointed out that play is an important pillar of the learning process as he
congratulated the Ministry on its achievements over the past 45 years. Expressing similar
sentiments were Professor Jaipaul Roopnarine of Syracuse University-USA who said that “play
and playfulness can help us be resilient and bounce back when negative events occur, sometimes
even bouncing forward.” Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Dr. Paloma Mohamed-
Martin noted that the nursery level with the incorporation of play into learning helps children to
develop behaviour, personality, individualism, and shows respect for a child’s culture.
In September 1976, when the Guyana Government took responsibility for providing care and
educational support for young children (nursery school programming for the three years nine
months to 5 years nine months). As such, play-based, child-centred, exploration and stimulation
activities were promoted to foster good mental health and general developmental domains. This
approach became a well-established curriculum component in early childhood education, as
captured in the Guyana Nursery Education Programme. Even though the need for play-based
learning at the early childhood stage was well integrated into the nursery education programme
in Guyana, iterations in curriculum reform over the past decade witnessed a shift in the delivery

and allotted time of play-based interventions.  However, the growing challenges resulting from
the migrant crisis in Guyana, the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and
increased frequency and intensity in climate change, gender-based violence and other issues have
led to the revisiting of play-based learning to help children build resilience as enabling coping
approaches.
The Symposium on Play Pedagogy was a one-day event that brought together a wide cross-
section of education stakeholders to address the prevailing issue of maximizing the
developmental possibilities of children’s play encounters.