In some public schools, volunteer teachers make up nearly 50 per cent of the teaching population. This isYCG Executive Director, Dmitri Nicholsonparticularly true in some hinterland schools which have been gaining teaching support through the Youth Challenge Guyana (YCG) Volunteer Teachers’ Programme.The reality of the situation is that some hinterland schools have two teachers, one of whom is a volunteer teacher.The volunteer programme has been in existence for a number of years and for the past few years,Jerseys NFL Cheap, YCG was able to recruit the services of in excess of 40 teachers to support the delivery of education in the public education system.“Our education work continues to have mainstream volunteer teaching…and we have been reaching schools across remote locations of the country,” said YCG Executive Director, Mr. Dmitri Nicholson.Volunteer teachers, according to him, were able to reach more than 2,000 children in schools. And he asserted that “the volunteer teachers also played a critical role in filling a void for teachers. Teachers may have to get maternity leave or be off the job for various reasons, and volunteer teachers are there to fill that gap.”But there have been some detractors of the programme. In fact, reports suggest that volunteer teachers are not qualified enough to fulfil the mandate of normal teachers, be they trained or untrained.Nicholson however insisted during an interview with this publication that “we have worked extensively with the Ministry of Education over the last seven years to ensure that the volunteer teachers have particular skills set and capacity to teach in the schools. Many people have commented that we put volunteer teachers in the school and they don’t have the skills, but over the years we have developed training tools and specific measuring mechanisms to ensure that volunteer teachers have the type of skills to teach in the classroom.”The Executive Director added that “they have really been able to fill that (teaching) void in a way that is professional and of a high quality.”He also disclosed that YCG has been embracing different kinds of interventions for volunteers, including monitoring to improve their skills, complete with coaching, to target areas of weaknesses in their teaching undertaking.“So while they are on site we have people who go and look at them teaching and give them feedback on how to improve in their teaching skills. The Head teachers are also responsible for ensuring that their (volunteers) skills are improved too,” said Nicholson.He underscored that some of the volunteer teachers are retired teachers who are very familiar with the curriculum delivered by the Education Ministry.In addition to this, Nicholson said that YCG has been reaching out to volunteer teachers from within the Diaspora. And some have already come on board.The Executive Director yesterday named re-migrant Mr. Roy Ramsaran, who has been considerably lauded for his volunteerism. Ramsaran, a banker, who returned to Guyana just for the purpose of volunteering in the teachers’ volunteer programme, has been credited with being of tremendous support to the Paramakatoi Secondary School.According to Nicholson, the feedback suggests that volunteer teachers across the board have been doing a fabulous job. “Teachers themselves have said that volunteer teachers are a tremendous asset to the schools. Without some of the volunteer teachers, classes would have been empty, and some schools are seeing an increase in attendance because there are volunteer teachers in the classrooms,” asserted Nicholson.“The programme has had a tremendous impact on the education system and continues to have a tremendous impact.”There have been reports that there are plans apace to phase-out the volunteer teachers programme. This comes at a time when President David Granger has made it clear that there is no place in the education system for untrained teachers.The volunteer teachers programme is one that is executed in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. The volunteers are carefully screened during a recruitment process and are paid a stipend once accepted for the task.
