The Ministry of Education’s Code of Conduct for teachers should be amended to prohibit discrimination against youth on the grounds of sexual orientation, Director of the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) Joel Simpson has recommended.

Simpson was at the time offering suggestions on how to decrease the high school dropout rate within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, during a presentation at the University of Guyana’s latest Turkeyen and Tain Talks, held last Wednesday at the Pegasus Hotel.

The University of Guyana should be commended for creating the space to address topics relevant to the development of the country through its Turkeyen and Tain Talks series. A recently concluded forum addressed the theme ‘Education as Freedom, Education Reform and Socio-economic Development in Guyana’ from a number of diverse and highly relevant perspectives.

The active involvement of unions, particularly the teachers union, is critical for true and serious reform of the education sector, according to Coretta McDonald, General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU).

McDonald made the case on Wednesday, during her address at the University of Guyana’s 11th Turkeyen and Tain Talks, which explored the role of education reform for the nation’s development.