According to the manifesto, good quality education helps the nation’s citizens to develop the necessary knowledge, skills and values to lead happy and productive lives, learning formally to love their country and the diversity of the people who live therein, and at the same time, adhering to the ideals and practices of democracy, justice, peace, diversity, accountability.

Guyana, the document recaps, has already attained Universal Primary Education and has also significantly increased the percentage of trained teachers; thus making the teaching-learning encounters more conducive. Statistically, there are the huge increase in the number of children passing at the Grade Six level, and more than the doubling of children enrolling in secondary schools and writing the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams.

Building on this massive success, the PPP/C intends, over the next five years, to implement a five-year strategic plan/plan of action for the Education Sector. This well-thought out plan is focused on increasing the learning outcomes between sub-groups, and decreasing the differences in learning outcomes between sub groups. The idea in this Education Strategic Plan (ESP) is to achieve six intermediate outcomes. The overall progress on these outcomes is expected to translate into improved learning outcomes for all sub groups.

Detailing this blueprint, the manifesto projects a number of positive results in the next five years: significant improvements in the performance of government departments responsible for implementing the ESP; establishment and effective functioning of an accountability system that creates incentives to improve student learning outcomes; improvements in the quality of school facilities; improvements in the quality of teaching; qualitative improvements of the curricula, the availability of teaching and learning materials and the alignment of materials and the curricula of training programmes with the revised curricula; increasing of instructional time.

This kind of futuristic outlook necessitates a certain level of commitment, and “Our Vision-Guyana Version 2.0” speaks of a commitment from the PPP/C; one that is comprehensive and long-term.  It posits a number of immediate pursuits: ensuring Universal Access across all levels (having already attained Universal Primary Education), the immediate areas are Universal Nursery and Universal Secondary Education; increasing the number of trained teachers; and implementing the first ever professional standards for teachers, defining the roles and responsibilities of professional teachers.

An early screening and diagnostic programme will be implemented that will provide greater training for teachers in the area of Special Education Needs (SEN), while the Accreditation Council will be revamped.

The old Education Act will be repealed and replaced by a new one while SMART classrooms will be implemented in all secondary schools, and efforts will be made to equip all primary schools with computers.

Opportunities in technical and vocational education will be enhanced and centres of Excellence will be set up for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and the arts and modern languages.

The PPP?C also plans to expand the School Guidance and Counsellors Programme, and implement programmes to lessen the number of dropouts and enhance retention at senior levels of secondary schools.

These goals are very attainable, as it should be noted that it has become the norm for the PPP/C to allocate it biggest slice of recent national budgets to the Education Sector. This move has paid great dividends in the recent past, as Guyanese have been quite dominant regionally, at both the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).

The PPP/C will also work within every sector, particularly in less populated areas, to provide opportunities for job creation and the establishment of small and medium business for our young people in all regions, by creating the right incentives for investment and business- promotion.

There would also be the identifying of the most vulnerable villages of the country for special developmental programmes. This would include budgetary allocations to hinterland villages, whilst additionally, gainfully employing rural poor in agriculture and allied industrial activities.

Additionally, simplifying the tax system and improving access to financing would allow the reviewing of the impact of taxes and other factors on cost of living. A periodic review of the regime business taxes would also encourage greater investment by large, medium and small scale businesses.

The implementing measures to improve financial intermediation and expand opportunities for “development type” finance would also benefit job creation. This would include the expansion of the housing, tourism and mining sectors, which would add to the country’s GDP.

Raising the quality and relevance in the education and training system would further allow the implementing of national apprenticeship and special youth employment programmes. This would also see the increase of students for the Board on Industrial Training (BIT) programme among others.

With the opening up of more technical institutes, more persons are getting jobs as educators. Students who have completed training in various disciplines would then be qualified to enter the workforce and enjoy highly paid jobs. They attend the Leonora, Mahaicony, Corentyne and the Essequibo Technical institutes along with the Government Technical Institute in Georgetown.

Cognisant of all the facts the administration has been providing new avenues of employment for all Guyanese while making way for skills training. In ensuring the provision of quality training to vulnerable groups, especially youth and women, the number of trainees has been increased annually.

The revitalisation of existing industrial sites, establishing regional ones and providing  incentives for job creation opportunities would see new manufacturers moving to employ more persons. This has been seen through the product manufacturer, UNICOMER, the parent company of Courts. The furniture giant opened a new state of the art distribution centre at Eccles Industrial Site, East Bank Demerara providing another window for persons seeking employment.

There would also be focus on downstream, value-added industries in agriculture, forestry, and mining sectors. The agro-processors would move towards employing persons to help them, whilst new mining companies would need more employees.

Incentivising foreign investment, specific to employment creation, would also allow foreign investors to employ locals in their companies. This has already been seen with Qualfon and other companies. Additionally with the Omai Mining Company and Guyana Goldfields Inc. entering the market, more than 800 Guyanese have secured jobs, after training under the expatriates. The same could be said for Troy Mining Resources Limited and RUSAL Kurubuka mines which have provided close to 500 Guyanese with high paying technical jobs.

Additionally, the growing banking sector throughout the country, including Republic Bank, Guyana Bank of Industry and Commerce and Citizens Bank, all had more employment opportunities for Guyanese. At each facility, more than 12 employment opportunities were presented and filled, giving persons in communities a chance to earn and provide service.

In the line of telecommunication and with Teleperformance coming to Guyana, there will be job openings for another 1500 persons.  Also coming on stream in the near future will be two more ICT hubs, one to be located at Tuschen on the East Bank of Demerara, and another Enmore on the East Coast of Demerara.

Further, a staggering 6,000 job opportunities have been opened with the commissioning of a new US$12 multi-building, the Qualfon contact centre campus, in Eccles, East Bank Demerara. Already Qualfon, with its two campuses at Beterverwagting and Sparendaam on the East Coast of Demerara, is providing more than 5000 Guyanese with job opportunities.

Another job creation initiative is the Marriott Hotel project, under which 230 Guyanese have already been selected for employment, and several other new hotels opening their doors for business in Guyana’s growing economy.

Additionally, the new rice cereal factory for which the sod was turned at Anna Regina, on the Essequibo Coast, is expected to provide training and employment opportunities for some 200 persons in that area.

Whilst providing incentives and opportunities for employers to hire youths would allow more young people a better chance to move upwards, similarly the development of entrepreneurship and apprenticeship programmes would boost employment.

The establishment of business development services, the promotion of appropriate micro-finance and innovative forms of credit and the setting up of job intermediation, counseling and mentoring centres would all go towards the issue of job creation.

Further the promotion of skill-training for the urban poor to take advantage of the emerging opportunities would also help within hinterland and urban communities.