In the wake of COVID 19, the Ministry of Education has launched ‘Operation Recovery’ within the 11 Education Districts. ‘Operation Recovery’ aims to find those primary school students who have missed the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) mock examination and those who have been continuously absent from school since its reopening.
On Friday, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand was on the ground in Best Village, Vreed-en-Hoop, Region 3 where she engaged with pupils and their parents/ guardians in an attempt to get them back into the classrooms.
Across the country, Education Officers from Central Ministry and within the Education Districts along with Regional officials and community activists fanned out into communities to locate these pupils. According to the Ministry of Education, the exercise aims to ascertain the location of the students and the reasons behind their absenteeism so that a determination can be made about how the Ministry can assist these students with returning to school.
The scientific data gathered from countries around the world in numerous studies by varying organizations continue to show that the long school closures resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic will lead to an increased rate of school dropouts and tremendous learning loss unless countries take urgent, practical measures to mitigate against same. This will not only affect the academic attainment of young people but ultimately their economic and social development as they become adults.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that this generation of children and youth cannot afford any more disruptions to their education and predict that unless practical measures are taken urgently this generation could lose more than 17 trillion dollars in earnings in their lifetime, have their academic growth stunted and their mental health severely affected.
“Operation Recovery” begins countrywide- Education officials on the ground to get students back into the classroom
