Guyana — inspired by teachers’ dedication
Stories from an area so remote it takes 24 hours to the capital.
“Children are children wherever they are in the world. Every single pupil has the ability to achieve great things and should have a teacher who is able to draw that greatness out of them. Teachers should be trained well to to spot the talent in pupils, to affirm that talent and to help that talent grow.”
Simon David, LRTT Guyana 2016 Fellow and English teacher
In 2016 LRTT Fellows flew to the South American country of Guyana. The mission was to deliver relevant and effective professional development to teachers in an area so remote that it takes nearly 20 hours to reach the capital city. In fact, it’s only 30 minutes to Brazil!
Few people in the UK or the US can place Guyana on a map, but it is a country of great people, breathtaking views such as the world-famous Kaieteur Falls, not to forget motivated teachers.
The main threat to high quality education is access. Guyana is a very big country with a coastal capital city. It has a tropical climate — think torrential downpours — and regions outside of the coast have poor transport and communication links, making them challenging for teachers and pupils. As a developing country, resources are limited with most investment in teacher development and training going to populous cities and towns.
To cover the gaps, more than half of teachers have little or no formal training have to be recruited. Mark France, a literacy coordinator in Georgetown, said:
“Approximately forty-seven percent of our teachers are trained. Training is ongoing but it’s a process.”
“We need more teachers to be trained”, says Brian Alcidas, a Primary School teacher in Lethem. “They need to attend colleges but it’s very difficult to travel from the hinterland to Georgetown.”
For LRTT Fellows, Guyana provided a great opportunity to share modern approaches to learning with teachers in Lethem, a town in a district so remote that it can take a day to get to Georgetown. Stacey Benjamin, a secondary teacher in Georgetown, underlined the value of Guyanese teachers interacting with LRTT Fellows. She said:
“ In the age of new technology you need more modern ways of teaching children.”
Mischka White, principal of the School of Nations in Georgetown, said LRTT’s training helped to rekindle teachers’ motivation by revealing new approaches.
“Sometimes we are caught in our own way of teaching and we become closed off and we’re not as reflective as we can be. Seeing someone else to bringing new strategies and methodologies into the classroom has ignited the passion and learning. It will help teachers across the board.”
Our mission is to ensure that every student around the world no matter which context they’re in gets a great education. This is a view shared by the Guyanese Ministry of Education.
“LRTT fits smoothly into teacher training in Guyana. Their mission reflects the responsibility for delivering relevant, effective and meaningful training for teachers not only in Guyana but, regionally and by extension internationally. Equally, the mission of the Ministry of Education in Guyana is to ensure that students are provided with quality education at all levels. ”
Clifton David, Ministry of Education, Guyana
LRTT’s vision is to give pupils such as Ethan, a secondary school pupil in Guyana, a great teacher by providing teachers with evidence-based approaches to teaching, putting learners at the heart of the lesson.
“Education is important if you want to go somewhere in life. If you wanna be successful if you wanna be what you aspire to be. Without education you can’t get anywhere.”
Ethan, Guyanese student
Georgetown: The introduction
On arrival to Guyana, Fellows learnt about the country and its history. We then started working in School of the Nations which is a quite a large school Georgetown. With that it gave the Fellows a nice introduction into education in Guyana especially in Georgetown and they got a feel of what it’s like to teach here.
Tom Gilbody, a special education teacher, was the team leader. He said:
“An education system is only as good as its teacher training. This gives us a great opportunity to come and share what we’re very lucky to have been taught in England with some people in some not as fortunate context as us. To be able to come back now and lead a team of 20 teachers has been an absolutely great opportunity.”
“To see local teachers who are passionate as I am about education and making a difference to every child’s life is is just fantastic. LRTT have a great vision in that wants to provide a future where any child is entitled to a high-quality education regardless of what context they were born into.”
We had some support from the Ministry of Education in Guyana who invited a large section of their school leaders to come along to this training. We also had teachers from across Georgetown registering and really wanting to be
part of this training.
For American Fellow Savannah Flakes, a special education and inclusion consultant, a determination to see other teachers develop and succeed was a big draw to LRTT. She said:
“All teachers need and deserve access to rich and meaningful professional development. This is one of the reasons that I joined LRTT Guyana to travel and provide these experiences for all of our teachers.”
Digging in: A 24-hour drive later
Our Fellows left Georgetown on a day-long drive to Lethem. The teachers here are so much more isolated from the capital and their own country that it only takes them half an hour to pop over to Brazil!
After a week of training primary school teachers, our curriculum team leader Sarah Reeves said she was motivated by seeing she shared a care for students with Guyanese teachers. She said of the teachers:
“Their ideas, their skills, their passion and drive has been something I admire and the admiration will follow me back home that no matter how hard it gets and how busy and challenging teaching is. I know that all teachers around the world are feeling challenged and tested but we’ve been able to share ideas and realise that students are what we all care about the most.”
Lethem speak: hearing from Guyanese teachers
For Andrew, art teacher in Guyana, LRTT’s training sessions provided an opportunity for teachers across the country to meet and share their ideas from different backgrounds. He said:
“ It’s an excellent idea to have workshops to enhance teacher education and to allow teachers not only the opportunity to learn but also to interact with other teachers. You’re feeding off of different experiences as well as allowing persons from different parts of Guyana and different schools both private and public schools to be able to interact and share our experiences.””
Others said:
“Oh there’s so much that I’ve learned so far. It has been a great learning experience.”
“I was really happy that I’m here … a part of the workshop and hats off to the organisers. This programme has really helped become a great teacher.”
Blown away by warmth and gratitude
The teachers in Georgetown blew me away with their warmth and gratitude for these sessions by the end of the week. The teachers in Lethem were just on another level. They were singing songs that they’d written and tailored towards our Fellows. Some handed us gifts that were made by their Amerindian communities.
We all have the same challenges in our communities. But how can we now work together, now that we know each other? Now that we’ve met ,and now that we’ve discussed ideas about education — how can we continue that into the future?
LRTT runs Fellowships in Guyana and 8 other countries. Are you a trained teacher? Are you interested in partnering to train teachers with limited training and teaching resources? Visit lrtt.org
