Investigative Report: Trouble Continues at Guyana’s Schools While Ministry Highlights the Good Stories

GEORGETOWN, Guyana , As the new school year gets underway, a growing collection of complaints from parents and teachers is raising questions about conditions in schools across Guyana, even as the Ministry of Education continues to use its public platforms largely to showcase new facilities, programmes, achievements and other positive developments.

Complaints shared with Opposition Member of Parliament Odessa Primus and reviewed for this report point to problems at schools in several regions, including shortages of teachers, overcrowded and extremely hot classrooms, inadequate teaching equipment, sanitation problems, unfinished dormitories, water and electricity shortages and troubling allegations about the treatment of children.

The complaints have not all been independently verified, and allegations against individual teachers or administrators require investigation and an opportunity for those involved to respond. But taken together, they present a picture considerably more complicated than the success stories dominating official education communications.