| …….hopes new minister will address concernsBy Leon SuseranThe 2011 Valedictorian of the University of Guyana Berbice Campus, Deochand Mathur Jaiprashad,UGBC 2011 Valedictorian, Deochand Mathur Jaiprashadis hoping that one of the first things that new Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, does is to allocate more School Counselors within the education system, immediately.The Tain Primary School teacher made known his desire for such officers to be spread more within the school system so as to cater for the many problems students have today.“With the new government, they can bring back the system of Guidance Counselors…not three Welfare Officers to look after the region…because children come to school with so many problems today.”“Eight years ago, I could teach a class with 45 children, because there were few children with domestic problems. Now it is like half of the class.” He said that the time taken by teachers like himself nowadays to deal with student welfare issues in the class takes away a significant portion of the instructional teaching time.The top graduate also predicted a very “lawless” society within the next five years, if efforts are not made in the schools to deal with student matters. “We would have no control. In fact, parents do not have any control over their children already. They are telling you, ‘Sir or Miss, see what you can do with the child,’” he said.Jaiprashad, a teacher for over 11 years, completed his studies at UGBC. He graduated a few weeks ago with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education and the Highest Grade Point Average (GPA) of 4.0. He had also previously topped the Certificate in Education Programme two years ago, also with the Highest GPA.He graduated from Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) at Rose Hall Town in 2004. He attained straight A’s during the first semester at UGBC and this gave him encouragement to move ahead.Some of his challenges were getting access to more updated literature at UGBC library, as well as “balancing work,China Jerseys NFL, home and UG”. He had to cut down socializing with friends and being a devout Hindu, to limit Mandir activities.The young teacher, who has now acquired new classroom skills, is concerned about the large volume of work being placed on the students in the primary school system. He recommends a new timetable altogether for the primary schools.“Our children cannot work; cannot do nine subjects per day. Some periods are like 20 and 35 minutes,” he noted.Currently, this situation obtains in all primary schools. The teacher noted that sometimes the time is too short to teach certain concepts. The compact learning day is too much work for the children…”because you have children with various learning deficiencies and emotional problems. I believe they can cut down a little bit on the time table,Wholesale Hockey Jerseys 2018,” he noted.“The children are so taxed”. With Psychology being one of the areas of focus during his studies at UGBC, Jaiprashad noted the psychological needs of children and how they can only absorb so much work when the school day comes.“We have so many periods of Spanish”,Wholesale NFL Jerseys Online, he posited. “The policy they (The Ministry of Education) should work on is to provide termly schemes (plan of work) for each [primary school in the] region.”He noted that with all the primary schools having different schemes,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, different topics with all the students being disadvantaged having to face standardized exams”. He said that while he was being critical, he knows the relevant authorities can fix the small problems.Even though the previous administration made several strides in the education sector,Cheap China Jerseys, Jaiprashad said that he would like to see the new administration and the Ministry of Education provide more learning materials such as models and textbooks.“One of the problems we are experiencing is that we have to be looking for material. If they look into the issue of giving us relevant teaching materials—if you want to teach something on the Solar System, you may have a small model that may not work—we need more textbooks”.“What I would like, if they can provide schools with photocopying machines where you could actually prepare your worksheets and print,China Jerseys Cheap, so that you can actually practice our children so when they have exams, they won’t be fearful,” he posited.According to the valedictorian, combating discipline in schools is also a sore issue.Under the new Minister, Jaiprashad said that should class sizes remain as large as they are, he would like to see some more salary increases in the future. “We are not only teachers, we are counselors, we are everything now. They should not only provide uniform allowance, probably transportation and lunch, you know, and I think they should provide this on a monthly basis. I think teachers would be more satisfied, but if they cant really deal with that now, I think our class ratio should be reduced.“It’s still difficult if you want to help some children who are not performing, so I want about 20- 25 [children] (as opposed to 33 children whom he has in his class at present) is a powerful class, you can really work with them, but that will also involve employing more teachers,” he said.Jaiprashad teaches Art to Secondary School teachers at CPCE Johns Centre and plans to take a break for now. The aspiring Education Officer, while he desires to remain in the teaching profession for now, will apply shortly to start the two-year Masters of Education (M. Ed) programme (majoring in Curriculum and Instruction) in 2012. |
