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The teachers were honoured on the final day of a 3-day ICT and EDPM workshop held at the NCERD offices at Battery Road, Kingston.
Conducted by ICT Coordinator, Ms. Marcia Joy Thomas, who is also the Chief Examiner for EDPM at CSEC; and Mr. Raymond Khan, Chief Examiner for ICT, the workshop started on Monday and concluded on Wednesday.
Thomas said the teachers (all females) were acknowledged for having done exceptionally well, in preparing students for the ICT and EDPM examinations. The outstanding four are:
* Bonita Juman of the West Demerara Secondary School, whose students at the CSEC level produced “the perfect SBA”. Of the 32 students sent up by the teacher, 31 received Grade Ones and there were 17 distinctions. One child got a Grade 2.
For EDPM (done off time table), there were 33 students sent up, and all (100%) secured Grade Ones. The results will be featured on the CSEC website.
* Parvatti Ackloo Phillips of New Amsterdam, Region 6, who runs afternoon programmes under which secondary and primary school teachers have been continuously trained over the last year. The training is intended to equip everybody with the basic knowledge of the use of Microsoft Office, Phillips said.
* Muna Gittens of Mackenzie, in Region 10, a retiree from Mackenzie High School, entered 25 candidates and 24 got Grade Ones and the other got a Grade 2.
* Zinnie Kowlessar of Bishops High School, Georgetown got 98.2 % in IT passes and 88.2 percent in EDPM from her class.
The teachers were grateful to the Ministry of Education for recognizing their contribution and publicly rewarding them.
Meanwhile, the ICT coordinator was proud to disclose that the ICT and EDPM candidates have grown from 1,000 to about 10,000 now writing those subjects combined. Against this backdrop, the local pass rates recorded are: Information Technology — between 75% and 80%, and the EDPM – 85%, she said.
Thomas applauded the work of the training programme, and had kudos for the teachers. Commending both the teachers’ input and the students’ performance, Thomas proudly asserted: “What has happened this year has been phenomenal. This is so especially since teachers have been sending to write IT and EDPM students who did not have computers and yet managed to get good passes.”
Thomas said the results were commendable, especially when compared to results of the other subjects at CXC. She opined that it was an indication of how far Guyana had come in this area.
Based on such sterling overall performance, Ms Thomas said NCERD considered it fitting to honour those stalwarts and give them each an award. While acknowledging the hard work put in by the students, Thomas added that the thinking behind the awards is that: “It shows that a dedicated teacher can get results.”
Thomas said NCERD is also convinced that rewarding teachers would excite them to stay in the system.
Giving an insight into the workshops, the ICT Coordinator outlined that, every year, the ministry holds such workshops to train new teachers in ICT and EDPM, as well as to review and update teachers already in the system on the changes that might have taken place at CXC, mistakes made at the exams; and largely, how teachers can improve the performance at ICT and EDPM.
This initiative was started in 2003 with a mere 14 teachers at ICT Workshops, but to date boasts 209 teachers having been trained.
Government also has an intense training programme which demands that all teachers in Guyana must be computer literate by 2013.
The ministry now has a cohort of master trainers who have been training teachers around the country since 2010, doing basic IT. These include a couple from Berbice who has trained over 500 teachers to date.
Underscoring and redefining the role and importance of IT, Thomas explained that it is gradually becoming a way of life; and will, in time, literally drive other subjects. Thomas also unveiled plans for greater things to be introduced in the system, with ICT at the helm.
She noted that government has been spending a lot of money putting computers in laboratories. “But whilst it is one thing to give infrastructure, we must also have the trained personnel to guide and teach our children how to use the system,” hence this initiative of holding workshops to train teachers was introduced, Thomas remarked.
