The Education Ministry (MoE), through the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD), has graduated some 35 teachers in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) following the successful completion of the Education Management Certificate Course.
The two-year programme was developed to train senior teachers from nursery, primary and secondary schools in the areas of administration and management. It is being implemented in all 10 regions, and aims at enhancing the accountability and competence of the teachers when put in leadership positions.
The graduating class on Friday at the St Francis Education Development Centre in Rose Hall Town
The programme is being executed through the Distance Education Unit of the MoE, and the participants would meet monthly to provide guidance for the completion of assignments. To date some 400 teachers in Region 6 have benefited from the programme.
At the simple graduation ceremony on Friday at the St Francis Education Development Centre in Rose Hall Town, NCERD Director, Jennifer Cumberbatch, while congratulating the teachers for completing the programme, noted that they are now in a better position to effectively aid in the supervision of education delivery within their respective schools.
She urged graduates to work with the Parent Teachers Association (PTA), the community, and the management of the school system in order to move education forward.
“The overall performance of our pupils needs to be improved. What part can you play in this as graduates from a management programme? As leaders and managers, we must walk the talk, and that is what will make our education system improve,” Cumberbatch added.
She said quality education is a part of the nation’s agenda, while explaining that access coupled with the delivery of quality education enhances attendance at school; and she urged the graduates to ensure that they oversee the delivery of nothing but quality education.
“The main pillar of quality education is the capacity of the teachers. Our teachers must demonstrate competence in teaching,” she noted, while urging teachersto be the agents of change.
Region Six Chairman David Armogan told the teachers that education is the greatest asset they can possess. He noted that Government would be looking for returns on its investment.
“What we found is that we were pushing teachers into management positions without the requisite training. Teachers basically have teaching skills, but when you move to another level, from teaching to management of a school, you have to acquire management skills. What we have found over the years is that there is a deficiency gap between the expected outcome and actual outcome,” Armogan said.
He said the two-year training programme was designed to fill that gap so that head teachers can perform more effectively as managers of their respective schools. The Regional Chairman said it is now expected that the schools to which the managers are attached would return higher levels of performance.
He said it is now expected that there would be a higher standard of management at their respective schools, and he urged that the teachers will take back to their schools what they have learnt, while referring to the teachers as the most underpaid group in Guyana.
In giving the charge to the graduating class, Regional Executive Officer Kim Williams-Stephens said the graduates should not fail to recognize the important role they play in the development of the country’s education system, and she charged them to lead by example.
