– target literacy, special education and family life education

AIMED at bridging gaps within Guyana’s education sector where they exist, the Ministry of Education and Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) on Wednesday launched four new programmes for teachers across the country.

These four programmes are: Health and Family Life Education (HFLE), Literacy Education, Special Education Needs and Disabilities and the Graduate Teacher programme.
At the official launch of these new programmes which were held at the CPCE, Director of the College Dr Julie Jailall indicated that three of these programmes are there to bridge the gap and are part of the strategies to be implemented for achieving the college’s education strategic plan.

According to the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, the addition of these programmes comes at a critical juncture in the education sector, as there is a need for focus in these areas.
Speaking of how some of these programmes came about, Manickchand indicated that literacy and HFLE came about, as she noted that knowing to read is quite different from teaching reading and teaching literacy.

As such, she added that it is her view that every single teacher must go through a significant component of their training where, once they exit the CPCE, they leave as literacy and HFLE experts, as this is critical in classrooms.
In relation to the Graduate Teacher programme, she noted that this programme is there to integrate persons with the relevant degree in their fields and have been teaching into the profession faster.

Giving an example of how this programme would go, the education minister noted that someone may have a degree in chemistry and have been teaching for some years without being a trained teacher.

As this person has been teaching for quite some time, she noted that it would not make sense to have that person return to [the] CPCE for two years. Those persons will instead earn their teaching certification in one year.

“They’ve already been teaching, maybe they need some methodology… so we crafted a programme, I asked them to craft the programme, it was not supposed to be as long as a year… but teachers can come back in and get methodology not content because they already know the content,” she said while adding that they have already acquired their degrees in that area.
While headway is being made in improving special education needs and disability, the new programme will ensure that opportunities and education are delivered to those students with learning and other disabilities.

Meanwhile, Dr Jailall stated, “If there is one thing you leave here today with, we are creating programmes but we are bridging the gap, there are support programmes, there are intervention programmes, we are training our teachers to beef up support of our students in the schools.”
The director added that these programmes will enhance students’ ability to connect, interact and effectively communicate.