Reg Five Welcomes Two New Nursery Schools

August 26, 2025 – Education Minister Priya Manickchand on Monday commissioned the No. 8 Nursery School and Hopetown Nursery School in Region Five.

The two facilities, valued at a combined $175 million, will directly benefit more than 120 children by providing safe, purpose-built environments for early learning and development.

The No. 8 Nursery School, constructed at a cost of $85 million, now accommodates 41 children and five trained teachers.

For years, pupils and teachers were housed under the bottom flat of the No. 8 Primary School, but they now move into a modern, child-friendly building.

At Hopetown, the new $90 million school replaces an aging wooden structure and will serve 80 children with nine trained teachers, offering a safer and more spacious setting for nursery education.

In her address, Minister Manickchand reflected on the journey to making nursery education more accessible:
“Before this school opened, your children would have been under the bottom house at Number Eight Primary. That was an education, but it wasn’t optimal. It wasn’t a special school, a special space that would allow us to do the kind of work we want to do with your children at this level,” she said.

She noted that while nursery education is not compulsory, enrolment rates have steadily risen.

“Although nursery education is not compulsory in Guyana, we know that parents are hungry and thirsty for their children to start learning early — and to learn from trained teachers so they can get the best. Today, about 93% of children at the nursery age are enrolled, up from about 85% just five years ago.

That improvement happened because we built schools. Access has always been the biggest barrier,” she emphasized.

The Minister also highlighted the government’s commitment to addressing challenges faced in hinterland communities, where distance and unsafe travel once hindered access to nursery schooling.

She reminded the gathering that these gains came despite the global pandemic.

“Over the last three and a half years, we have built 67 nursery schools across Guyana — the highest number ever constructed in such a short period. And I say three and a half years deliberately because for almost two of those years, the country was under lockdown. Schools were closed, and construction sites could not operate because we were trying to keep people safe from a virus we didn’t fully understand. Despite that, we made this possible,” Minister Manickchand said.

The commissioning of these schools, officials noted, reflects the Ministry’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that every child in Guyana has access to quality education from the earliest years — an investment in the country’s human capital and future prosperity.