The Ministry of Education has noted another false and libellous post made on behalf of the opposition parties and personalities.
For the public’s information, text books in the Ministry of Education are bought by and through the following processes.
1. In accordance with our Text Book Policy, an official Text Book Committee of the Ministry of Education gathers together teachers from across the country of the particular subject and level/grade and together they determine the most relevant, useful book for usage by learners. (There are many titles on any given subject, hence the experience and learning of the expert teachers are used as well as the recommendation of CXC, where relevant, to determine which book should be purchased). In most cases, only one text per subject is bought but for some subjects such as Math, English, some Sciences, more than one text may be bought based on said recommendation from said text book committee members.
2. Procurement then commences.
3. Where books are owned by publishers, the Ministry buys directly from the purchaser as to do anything else would be a breach of copyright and subject the Ministry and Government to liability for breach of said copyright. In or around 2012, the Ministry was sued by several publishers for said breach of copyright.
4. In some cases, individuals, companies or publishers also have exclusive rights to distribute particular books to countries or the Caribbean region. (see examples attached)
5. To begin procurement, the publisher is contacted and a quotation for said Committee recommended book/s is sought.
6. Negotiations to bring down prices given volume etc may happen.
7. An award is sought from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board using said quotation with appropriate justification for sole sourcing (the reason here would be either that the proposed vendor is the publisher or has exclusive rights for distribution).
8. A Cabinet no objection is then sought in accordance with the Procurement Act and once that is given, an award is prepared and a contract, entered into. When purchased books are delivered, the vendor is paid.
9. Where committee recommended books have no known publisher or one cannot be located, a public advertisement is placed in the newspaper and on the worldwide web calling for the least expensive, most responsive person to bid to so provide. Those bids are then evaluated by the NPTAB and a cabinet no objection sought and purchases made accordingly.
Contrary to the offending post, no cheque was cut for any of the named books in the quotation or to the publisher or at all, as alleged. The Minister is without the ability and/or jurisdiction to cut or order the cutting of cheques. In law or in fact. And in any event, said cheques could not be cut as alleged as there were no releases yet from the Ministry of Finance.
To be clear, at this point, no cheques are cut for said books in said opposition post.
The Book Distribution Unit was merely being proactive in getting quotations for the books that are needed in the system. And the Ministry is proud of that fact and the young people working there and encourages the BDU to continue doing the amazing work it has been doing. The quotations had to be sought from the particular provider, simply because that company is the publisher (owner) of the books and/or have exclusive rights for distribution of same in Guyana and/or the Caribbean region. (see letters attached at end of release).
The Government reminds the population that the APNU/AFC failed, refused and/or neglected to provide text books to the pupils and students of Guyana. The special report of the Auditor General for the period 2016-2019 found that, “the Ministry spent millions to purchase text books yet failed to supply 71% of the text books requested by schools … for the years 2017 and 2018. This caused shortages of textbooks at Primary and secondary schools as each learner could not receive a text book for core subjects, as required in the ministry’s book policy….”
Comparatively, the Ministry of Education under the PPP/C government, has procured text books for all Primary and secondary school learners and are now in the process of replacing lost or damaged books. A booklet of all the text books that should be in each book bag was given to every Parliamentarian during the Budget Debates. The public-school children were for the first time under the PPP/C government, given books only children of private schools or whose parents had a credit card and could buy online could access. This has resulted in more Primary school children from public schools getting into the national schools than private school children. This has resulted in more hinterland children being able to gain places at the national schools than ever before. This has resulted in more secondary school children being able to undertake subjects where no teachers exist or where the timetable cannot accommodate said child with said subject.
Additionally, and proudly, it is this year, that the Ministry is beginning to buy work workbooks so that our children can do the workings in their own workbooks. The ministry is even prouder of the fact that it has written its own material for Math, English, Social Studies and Science for the Primary level and has written a comprehensive Literacy package with various material for learners from nursery to adulthood, a program that will be commissioned shortly. The aim is to have every child a reader by Grade 4.
We caution politicians, political parties and other personalities to refrain from endangering the lives of our children or hampering their quality of education by politicizing education. Our children deserve only the best.
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