Persons found selling school worksheets will face law -Minister Edghill

Minister of Public Works, Hon. Bishop Juan Edghill says persons found selling the school worksheets would face the law as the Government has invested vast sums to provide those scripts free of cost to stem learning losses due to Covid.

The Minister made this statement on Wednesday after residents of Amelia’s Ward, Region 10 raised the issue during a ministerial outreach there.

Although the Ministry of Education has put systems in place for the smooth distribution of the worksheets, residents said they are only provided with soft copies. They also said since last year bookstores and other persons began selling the hardcopies to parents.

Minister Edghill told residents that the act is not only unacceptable, but “reckless, lawless and vulgar” and should not be tolerated by anyone in the Region.

“No worksheet is to be sold by anyone; it is exploitation… It is a crime to profit off our children in a Covid pandemic, when the Government is expending money for children to get the worksheets.

The Government has spent tens of millions of dollars printing materials for school children, and so we do not care who is doing this, but it has to stop.”

He said Education Minister, Hon. Priya Manickchand has been informed and the issue would be addressed soon.

Last year, the Education Ministry reopened schools for Grades 10, 11 and 12 students scheduled to write theCaribbean Secondary Education Certificate and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination in 2021.

Some $300 million was then invested into the education sector to ensure every child benefitted from distance learning through online platforms, television, radio and print packages. The print packages allow student who do not have access to the Guyana Learning Channel or online platforms to continue learning.

The initiative was highly-praised, and reaches students in nursery, primary and secondary schools.