By Vanessa Narine
THE National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) yesterday hosted a one-day workshop for regional coordinators of the $115M fast track initiative (FTI) in the massive literacy programme, started in May throughout the 10 Administrative Regions
The purpose was to help the participants determine the progress of sessions already held and expectations during the just begun academic year.
Currently, regional coordinators, in association with 234 educators, out of a targeted 300, engage not only students but also adults and any interested persons in the afternoons, five days a week, during an approximate seven hours study schedule.

In their review, those taking part yesterday noted that the FTI had reached 3,512 persons by the end of August, including children and adults, at 120 centres.

That was accomplished in classes of 15 students per educator, with enthusiastic educators and regional coordinators who have been going above and beyond expectation to ensure that the FTI has an effective outreach, National Coordinator, Mr. Murray Greenidge said.

But the coordinators said, in their quest, they encountered a number of challenges that sought to hinder their efforts, among them limited support from local government, reluctance of headteachers of some schools, parents of schoolchildren and other adults to admit their illiteracy and, common in all regions, extra lessons that clash with the time the FTI has classes.
The majority of regional coordinators agreed that the lack of support is mainly due to communication problems and awareness on the part of teachers and government officials.
Director of NCERD, Mr. Mohandat Goolsarran said the Ministry of Education maintains a rigid position in relation to after school lessons given with the use of school property, that there should not be a cost attached.

However, the regional coordinators reported that, despite the literacy classes being free of charge, parents prefer to send their children to paid lessons.

In spite of that, Greenidge said the efforts towards the goal have met with reasonable success.

He added that, while “absolute success” is unrealistic, the hard work and dedication of the FTI team have been reasonably successful over the past four months.

At the end of the FTI, the groundwork for sustained intervention at the community level would have been laid and the general attitude to education would rise amongst the priorities for personal development, Greenidge posited.

Aside from workshops like the one yesterday, monthly reporting will continue for the duration of the FTI and educators are working vigorously to achieve the outreach target of 14,700 people, Greenidge said.

The coordinators in attendance yesterday were Nigel Richards (Region One, Barima/Waini); Pameshwar Lall (Region Two, Pomeroon/Supenaam); Purity Li and Lennie Mohammed (Region Three, West Demerara/Essequibo Islands); Kalowtie Singh (Region Four, Demerara/Mahaica); Narain Ramjit (Region Five, Mahaica/Berbice); Shameena Hanif (Region Six, East Berbice/Corentyne); Murphenia Stephens (Region Seven, Cuyuni/Mazaruni); Richard Sinclair (Region Eight, Potaro/Siparuni); Audwin Rutherford (Region 10, Upper Demerara/Berbice) and Surendra Oodit from Georgetown.