Baksh announces…
EDUCATION Minister, Shaik Baksh, has announced that greater emphasis is being placed on the continuous professional development of teachers.
He said this is happening as his Ministry widens the opportunity for the teachers to upgrade their skills and be more responsive to the changing demands of the school system.
Speaking at the recent Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) graduation, Mr. Baksh, disclosed that teachers who complete the programme will have an advantage when they apply for promotion.
The initiative, which targets teachers at the early childhood, primary, secondary and technical vocational education and training (TVET) levels, is to meet the demand for training courses in both content and methodology of the curriculum.
The National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) conducts a range of face-to-face and distance education courses, based on perceived needs of the system, which are delivered both at the national and regional levels.
The continuous professional development courses, which are also offered by NCERD, are through face-to-face instructions, distance education using both print and electronic media and a blended mode of both formats of delivery.
However, it has been proposed that all teachers, during the first five years of their appointment, secure at least 12 credits from professional courses, a maximum requirement for any upward mobility in the profession and a another six in the subsequent five years for further promotion.
The courses include classroom test construction and evaluation, guidance and counselling, curriculum management, education management certificate, personnel management for school managers, principles of education management and non-certificate for Mathematics, English and the sciences.
Baksh also disclosed that the University of Guyana (UG) has approved a revision of its education timetable to facilitate classes after 15:00 h, discontinuing the need for teachers to be given permission from the Ministry of Education to attend the university during school hours.
He said some of those classes will be conducted on Saturdays.
Baksh said, too, that efforts are also being made to upgrade teacher educators at CPCE to the master’s level.
He said quality teachers are the ones who make the real difference in students’ performance and there must be a paradigm shift in the delivery of education at CPCE, to include the redesign of the curriculum to de-emphasise knowledge content which leads to cramming and regurgitation.
The new curriculum design and delivery methodology must emphasise processing, problem solving, developmental, technical, communication, reasoning and interpersonal skills, among other things, he stated.