Deputy Premier Lobbies for More Investment in Education

Montserrat’s Deputy Premier has called for more investment in education, in endorsing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Human Resource Development (HRD) Strategy.

Speaking at the recent Thought Leadership Forum hosted as part of the Thirty-Fourth Council for Human and Social Development COHSOD, in Guyana Mrs. Ryan posited that investing in education is a valuable option.

She pointed out the fact that a majority of the Region’s leaders were graduates of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Mrs. Ryan, who was part of a three member panel also stated that economics was important in developing the strategy, a sentiment raised by Professor Ivelaw Griffith, Vice Chancellor, University of Guyana, that it was time for the Region to invest in itself and “put its money where its mouth is”.

The Forum was an unprecedented component of the opening ceremony for the COHSOD.

Vice Chancellor Griffith, in leading the discussion, challenged those crafting the implementation plan for the Human Resource Development (HRD) Strategy to move from dreaming to actually doing.

Mr. Griffith spoke to four imperatives which he said were crucial to the development of the implementation plan: values, ownership, investment and resilience.

He commended the six values identified in the HRD Strategy and suggested adding respect as a seventh value.

He said respect was a value that ought to be embraced as a fundamental desideratum of other values such as good citizenship.

Minister Ryan, in her response, agreed that values were important in crafting the implementation plan.

She spoke to examining the Region’s values as a people but also exploring the value of the Region.

The HRD Strategy recognizes the need for systemic educational reform leading to the establishment of a single, unified, and coordinated system for planning and managing the entry, upward and diagonal mobility and exit of learners.

This would reduce resource and learning duplications, repetitions and misalignment across all levels of education and training sectors.