Minister of Education, Dr. Henry Jeffrey, who recently returned from Washington in the United States, told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that the undertaking is a part of the Guyana Basic Education and Access and Management Support Programme.

It will be of four-year duration, costing US$55M and comprising four components, the first and most important being improved performance in schools.

Through this component, emphasis will be placed on non-traditional teaching aids such as interactive radios, getting communities to be involved, continuous assessment of classrooms and gradual phasing out of the Secondary Schools Entrance Examination (SSEE).

"It is the hope that, by the end of the fourth year of the project, all schools will be using interactive radios as a teaching aid in the area of Mathematics," the minister said.

He said efforts to improve community participation are continuing, along with development of in-service training for teachers.

Already Guyana Basic Education Training (GBET) has started with senior managers getting the benefit and it will eventually become one of the criteria for promotion, as an ongoing attempt at improving the skills of teachers and, ultimately, students' performance.

Another aspect of the enhancement, is geared to better the organisational and human resource capacity, including revision of the Education Bill, establishment of Schools Improvement Advisory Councils and designing and implementing national and regional information systems.

Bettering and increasing access to the physical environment in under-served regions and effective school maintenance programmes within them, as well as upgrading the administrative and instructional support facilities, are also in the plan.

Under the management part, a system of monitoring and evaluating by the Education Ministry will be implemented to ensure completion in the stipulated time, GINA reported.