The Education Ministry’s Deputy Chief Education Officer (DCEO) with responsibility for
technical education, Dr. Ritesh Tularam, noted that the ministry’s online Technical and
Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes have been successful so far.
It was disclosed that the education ministry commenced the online programme last year, in light
of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We may have had a few hiccups from time to time and we
understand in the technological world, connectivity, infrastructure, access to devices and so on
can present such situations. So, the ministry continuously ensures that those students were
provided with internet access and (internet) hubs and all these things were established at various
points, especially in the hinterland (to bridge that gap),” Dr. Tularam was quoted in an exclusive
interview recently.
He revealed that to complement these efforts, consistent monitoring and supervision, as well as
guidance were given to ensure students were not affected. The DCEO stressed that this approach,
“will allow the ministry to rectify or remediate whatever difficulties or challenges students might
face at one point in time.” He disclosed that the online feature was conceptualised in 2020, after
Guyana discovered its first covid case in March of that year.
Dr. Tularam pointed out that the TVET institutions were already utilising the online platform,
however, a decision was taken to expand to ensure students continue their programmes. As such,
the ministry had also repurposed a portion of the loan provided by the Caribbean Development
Bank (CDB) to Guyana Skills Development and Employability Project (GSDEP) to procure
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment for these institutions.
The DCEO revealed that over $65M worth of equipment including 138 laptops, 12 tablets, 40
camcorders, 128 projectors and 20 cloud storage devices were purchased for the programme. He
said that institutions including the Government, Linden, Essequibo and New Amsterdam
Technical Institutes, the Guyana Industrial Training Centre (GITC), and Upper-Corentyne
Industrial Training Centre (UCITC) among others, received equipment.
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