ONE of the most important factors in raising students’ achievements is highly qualified teachers. Research shows that teachers’ subject-matter knowledge is greatly associated with students’ learning. In this era of high standards and high expectations, having a highly qualified teacher has never been more important.
In her review of studies comparing student performance and teacher quality, “Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence” (Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, 1999), Stanford researcher Linda Darling-Hammond found that teachers with strong subject-matter knowledge, solid training in teaching methodologies and theories, full certificates, and high scores on licensing exams have greater student gains in reading, elementary education, and early childhood education.
In a New York Times Magazine article, “Can Good Teaching Be Learned?” (March, 2010), Elizabeth Green writes that the teacher to which a student is assigned has a great impact on his or her performance.
In fact, researcher Williams Sanders found that students with poor teachers for three years in a row scored an average of 50 percentage points lower than those with good teachers for that same amount of time. In contrast, variables that are popularly thought to affect student performance – class size, per-pupil funding, and curriculum choice – had negligible impact.
Consequently, many countries are placing tremendous emphasis on the training of teachers, because it is abundantly clear that highly qualified and trained teachers are an imperative if the challenges of any education system are to be adequately met.

Russia has a long-standing tradition in high-quality education for all citizens. It probably has also one of the best mass-education systems in the world producing a literacy rate (98%) exceeding most Western European countries. Education is split into a compulsory Basic Education, and ongoing Higher Education.
A very important part of Russia’s education system is the training of teachers. There are three levels: primary/basic, secondary and higher level teachers.
* Training of pre-primary and primary/basic school teachers
Non-university level educational institutions (technikums, colleges) train teachers for pre-primary and primary schools. The duration of the course is two to four-and-a-half years. Some teacher training institutions of university level train teachers for primary schools. The course lasts for five years. Graduates of these two types of educational institutions may enter the profession.
* Training of secondary school teachers
Teacher training is carried out in teacher training university-level institutions. The programme lasts for at least five years. Graduates may enter the profession.
* Training of higher education teachers
University teachers must have followed post-graduate training. A scientific degree (Kandidat Nauk at least) is compulsory. Lecturers are appointed on a contract basis by the departments, tenured professors are appointed by the university.
In Guyana, because of a neglect of the education sector for nearly three decades by the PNC government, training of teachers became one of the victims. Consequently, the number of trained teachers went on the decline and this situation was made even worse with the closure of the in-service training centres in the rural communities. Fortunately, under this PPP/C government, they were re-opened and,  in addition, a Distance Education Programme is also in place.
Under the current government, the neglect of the education sector by the PNC has been dramatically reversed and, as such, education standards are surely back on the rise.

According to Education Minister Shaik Baksh, currently some 65 per cent of teachers in the school system have completed formal training and with the Guyana Improving Teacher Education Project  now on stream, the Ministry of Education is on track to surpass the 70 percent benchmark outlined in its 2008-2013 Strategic Plan.

This is a significant improvement from where we were a couple of decades ago and is a reflection of the great focus and resources that are being placed in the education sector. Today, over 500 teachers graduate every year and this no doubt has contributed tremendously to our improving education standards.

If this momentum continues, Guyana will surely return to its glory in education of the early 1960s, when it boasted the highest literacy rate in the English-speaking Caribbean, a development which  resulted from a revolutionary education policy and programme spearheaded by a PPP government of another era.