HGP Nightly News – For many Guyanese children, the journey through the education system is ending long before it should, with the average student leaving school around Grade Nine despite major public spending in the sector.
The situation is raising serious concerns about whether increased allocations to education are being translated into the kind of classroom improvements needed to keep students in school until they complete the secondary level.
In 2024, the education sector received a $14.1 billion budgetary allocation, with $4.9 billion going toward the School Feeding Programme and $9.2 billion being directed to the Because We Care cash grant. These programmes are intended to reduce the financial burden on families, support attendance, and help children remain connected to the school system.
However, the dropout figures suggest that financial assistance alone is not enough to address the deeper problems affecting student retention, especially when many children continue to face difficult learning conditions, household pressures, and limited access to quality teaching.
The United Nations Development Programme, in its 2024 report, points to persistent inequality in access to quality education as one of the central reasons behind the country’s weak retention outcomes. The report links the problem to schools with insufficient resources, overcrowded classrooms, underqualified or unmotivated teachers, and significant levels of violence.
These challenges create a school environment where some students are not only struggling academically, but also finding it difficult to remain engaged, safe, and supported enough to continue their education.
The problem is even more serious in hinterland and riverain communities, where distance, transportation costs, and uneven access to quality instruction continue to affect attendance and completion. For students in those areas, staying in school often requires families to overcome challenges that go far beyond tuition.
The numbers show how sharply the system begins to lose students after the primary level. While primary school retention remains high at 93 percent nationally, the secondary school survival rate falls to just 42 percent overall.
That means fewer than half of students are making it to the final grade of secondary school, even though completion of secondary education is increasingly important for employment, further study, and participation in the modern economy.
The gender gap is also significant. Only 32 percent of male students reach the final grade of secondary school, compared to 52 percent of female students. This points to a serious challenge among boys, who appear to be leaving the school system at a much higher rate.
Regional disparities make the picture even more troubling. Regions One, Two, Seven, and Eight continue to record lower efficiency rates than the national average, showing that geography remains a major factor in whether a child is able to stay in school.
Although public education is officially free, families still face considerable costs at the secondary level. Transportation, school supplies, meals, uniforms, and other daily expenses can place pressure on households, especially those already struggling financially.
For some families, those costs can become the difference between a child remaining in school and being pulled out before completing secondary education.
This is where the dropout crisis becomes more than an education issue. It becomes a social and economic concern, because students who leave school around Grade Nine often enter adulthood with fewer qualifications, fewer job options, and fewer opportunities to benefit from Guyana’s expanding economy.
Guyana had set a target of achieving a 70 percent secondary completion rate by 2023 in keeping with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, the available data shows that the country remains far from that goal.
