MAJOR capacity building is on the cards for the Ministry of Education (MoE) over the next five years, with annual compulsory continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers across all levels, an increase in the number of trained teachers and some form of training for 70 per cent of education managers.

These goals are contained in the ministry’s recently launched Education Sector Plan 2021 – 2025, which calls for an organisation audit, which will be the basis for the development of a Human Resource Strategy that is expected to be fully operationalized by 2025.

An organisation audit had been planned under the last ESP, which covered the 2014 – 2018 period; however, it was never implemented. Guyana has been without an ESP since 2018.

Giving an overview of the ESP at its launch on Wednesday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, the ministry’s Chief Planning Officer, Nicola Johnson, highlighted that the roll out of a human resource development plan will be “key to the implementability of this sector plan”.

“Our target is to ensure that student performance across levels improves by 2025 and to ensure that our teachers at all levels will receive, at a minimum, 30 hours of continuous professional development (CPD) every year. We will also be strengthening our school supervision and accountability system,” Johnson said.

With the public school system currently having 70 per cent of teachers trained, the ESP 2021 – 2025 has set a target of increasing that percentage to at least 85 per cent, with at least 50 per cent of teachers receiving 40 hours of CPD.  This includes 80 per cent of teachers at each level – nursery, primary and secondary – receiving at least 30 hours of compulsory CPD, and 70 per cent of Mathematics teachers receiving 30 hours of CPD.

These developments fall under Priority Two of the ESP which speaks to performance at all levels being improved.

The MoE introduced its systematic CPD programme through its National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) which is primarily delivered during the long July-August vacation period.

There is also a component that looks at improving the quality of teacher education at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) where the training programmes will be brought into alignment with the updated curricula being piloted in schools.

The plans for personnel development at the ministry will not only focus on teachers but also look to developing education officers and other administrative personnel, both at the central ministry and at regional offices.

Under Priority One which focuses on improved governance and accountability, training is scheduled to be conducted for education managers, including Assistant Chief Education Officers (ACEOs) beginning from this year with 50 officers.

By 2025, the plan aims to have at least 70 per cent of education managers benefitting from some form of capacity building.