A CARIBBEAN conference on Educational Leadership is planned for April 5 and 6 at the School of the Nations, New Market Street, Georgetown.

The conference, which is being organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the British High Commission, will see a number of international speakers participating, the Nations University said in a release. Among those confirmed are Professor Roy McConkey from the University of Ulster, Aziz Roya of Afghanistan, Yassin Saar, Dr Soma Stout and Gordon Naylor.

McConkey has visited Guyana on more than 12 occasions over the past 15 years to help with programmes developed by School of the Nations, while Roya has received a series of international awards for championing the education of girls in Afghanistan.

Saar has pioneered work with rural women in The Gambia, while Dr Farzin Rahmani has developed entrepreneurship programmes in Zambia, The Gambia, and South Africa. Dr Soma Stout is the Head of the 100 Million Healthier Lives programme at Harvard University and she will be sharing the work of her NGO in more than 25 countries, including Guyana.
Meanwhile, Naylor will talk about the role of the performing arts in transforming education.
The conference will also launch the Cambridge University Certificate in Educational

Leadership programme that Nations University has been approved to offer in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. According to a statement from the School of the Nations, a 200-page book written by Dr Brian O’Toole, Director of School of the Nations and titled ‘Educational Leadership: a Guyanese Experience’, will be launched. The book outlines 40 years of experience working on developmental projects in Guyana.

That aside, a series of workshops have been planned for each afternoon of the conference. The workshops will speak to the experience of the NGO Epic in working with youth and children who have fallen foul of the law, the Baha’i model of education, the role of the performing arts in education, the Cambridge Certificate in Educational Leadership, the work of the 100 Million Healthier Lives programme, the work of LRTT in introducing a new model of teacher training in Nepal, Kenya and Guyana, programmes of entrepneurship in Africa and their relevance to Guyana.

Registration for the two-day conference at School of the Nations costs $5,000 and includes all conference materials along with lunch and snacks. Additionally, on April 9, an Education Fair will be held at School of the Nations. Universities and Colleges from the USA, Canada, UK and the Caribbean will be participating. The universities and colleges will also introduce their programmes. The fair starts at 09:00hrs and will conclude at 16:00hrs.