Education Freedom and Guyana


In 2012, the Government of Guyana came under fire for seeking to purchase pirated text books.  Guyana has long had a trade in copies of text books due to the inability of parents to purchase orginal copies. Guyana's Constitution provides for free (without cost) education up to secondary level. The Government has to provide text books and other educational resources.


Education Freedom Day  (third Saturday in January) not so much about free (without cost) education, but about  "educating the worldwide public and educators about the benefits of making and sharing free knowledge and the tools already in place to achieve that objective." 


The idea evolved from Software Freedom as proposed by the the Free Software Foundation. Free Educational Resources (FER)  are .. 


"..materials licensed with a Free license as defined by the Free Software Foundation used for teaching, learning, educational, development and research purposes. It's all about supporting and promoting access to knowledge. It includes all kinds of content, courses, modules, textbooks, videos, tests, software and any tools or techniques used to support access to knowledge. When we talk about Free Educational Resources, the important thing is not only accessible, but it's also reusable, revisable, remixable and localizable.

Free Educational Resources also includes any development tool for producing, storing, sharing, searching and accessing content, spaces for learning communities as well as materials used to support access to knowledge. It is paramount to use Free and Open Source Software so people won't need to use proprietary software and lock themselves up to be able to access the materials."

The freedoms I think  refer to :-
  • The freedom to use the resources  for any purpose
  • The freedom to change the resources as you wish
  • The freedom to redistribute copies of the software so you can help your neighbour
  • The freedom to distribute copies of your modified resources to others



The examples of FER include the  MIT Open Courseware in which course materials are made available.

The Ministry of Education in Guyana has had several projects to produce books for the local curriculum. Some of the books and other materials are available for download on the MOE website. (Including Niklodeon colouring books for Nursery age children? ) .

There is no  policy in Guyana or the Caribbean about making and sharing educational resources to support primary and secondary school students.


The Universities in the Caribbean  have not publicised in any Open Course Ware projects or ideas. They might exist for select audiences.

I have participated in a project to provide resources for a short course on "Advancing Sexuality Studies: A short course on sexuality theory and research methodologies" .  I have also shared some of the modules  which I developed for a youth project.

I plan to work on some additional resources based on prevention of intimate partner violence and some  other topics in  human rights education. 





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