Guyana's new academic year began on Monday with the Education Ministry declaring the country's school infrastructure largely ready to receive students. Education Minister Sonia Parag, accompanied by senior ministry officials, visited several schools in Georgetown to observe the reopening and speak with staff and pupils.

Parag said the vast majority of the country's roughly 1,200 schools had reopened without incident, citing functioning washrooms, connected and flowing water, secure guttering and clean surroundings as evidence that the ministry's preparatory work had been completed. She added that classroom furniture had been supplied across the system, a point she raised repeatedly while touring facilities in the capital.

The readiness drive stretched across the month preceding the reopening. Ministry staff, regional education officers and school administrators worked through the holiday period to distribute textbooks and other academic materials, arrange furniture for classrooms and dormitories, and carry out repairs identified as necessary before the start of term. Officials have described the effort as continuous rather than concentrated in the final days before reopening, with inspections carried out on a rolling basis in the weeks beforehand.

Not every school reached full readiness by Monday. Parag said around one per cent of institutions nationwide were operating under temporary or alternative arrangements because works could not be finished within the required timeframe. She was careful to distinguish between minor repairs, which she said were completed without delay to any school's reopening, and major rehabilitation projects, which in a small number of cases required a different approach.

Airy Hall Nursery School in Region Five was cited as an example. With construction ongoing at the site, the ministry consulted parents and teachers before agreeing to relocate pupils temporarily to the Mahaicony Technical and Vocational Training Centre. Structural adjustments were also continuing at facilities in Linden, including Mackenzie High School and the LICHAS building, though the ministry maintained that none of this prevented the academic year from beginning on schedule nationally.

Parag framed these relocations as a deliberate strategy rather than a failure of planning, arguing that moving students to alternative premises allowed learning to continue uninterrupted while safety standards at the original buildings were addressed. She rejected characterisations of the situation as a widespread delay, stressing that the arrangements affected a small fraction of schools and were confined to specific locations rather than reflecting a systemic problem.

The minister also addressed public criticism that had circulated around the readiness of certain schools, referring to what she called negative narratives surrounding the small number of delayed facilities. She defended the work of regional education officers and local administrators, saying they had coordinated closely to secure safe learning environments despite localised challenges, including construction timelines and site-specific complications that were not always visible to the public.

Elsewhere, some schools reported their own difficulties. In Region One, the Northwest Secondary School Board of Governors acknowledged that a number of newly admitted Grade Seven students could not initially be accommodated within the main building, and said the school's technical and vocational facility would be used to house additional classes while the matter was resolved.

Looking beyond the opening days of term, Parag said the ministry would deploy maintenance crews throughout the year to deal with issues as they arise, from broken fixtures to leaking roofs, rather than treating infrastructure work as a task confined to the school break. She acknowledged that conditions would not be uniformly perfect across the system but said the ministry remained committed to improving both access and resources for students and teachers.

The minister closed her public remarks by appealing for patience from parents, educators and the wider public as the ministry continues refining school infrastructure across the country, a process she indicated would extend well beyond the opening weeks of the academic year.

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