New courses available for teachers through Commonwealth of Learning’s support

The Commonwealth of Learning has been supporting the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) – the agency responsible for in-service teacher professional development – by having introduced for 2022 new courses that are designed to strengthen the Centre’s capacity to develop materials and offer teacher professional development online.

The support has enabled 24 education officers to complete a series of online workshops and post-workshop activities designed to prepare them to develop and facilitate short professional development courses online.
NCERD has now converted 15 teacher professional development courses and made them available on the COL-provided Moodle platform, and seven additional courses will be added by the end of 2022.
Director of NCERD, Quenita Walrond Lewis, has applauded the initiative by saying, “Officers have responded enthusiastically to the training opportunities that COL has provided. NCERD is pleased to have been able to deliver on the important mandate of making our training materials available online, so that teachers can self-select their professional development experiences based on their own perceived needs. This unique experience is another NCERD first for the sector.”
To sustain the training, seven NCERD officers were selected as lead trainers, and at the end of September, they completed a short coaching course that prepared them to train and provide ongoing support to their colleagues in designing, developing, and teaching online courses.
According to COL Education Specialist Dr Mairette Newman, “Assisting NCERD to realise their vision to offer training programmes online has been an honour. We’re excited to see them expand their in-person onsite training courses, so teachers can now access professional learning through the Moodle platform.”
During the pandemic, Guyana entered into a partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning and Coursera, and in less than 6 months had realised more than 43,305 certificates issued to 9,473 Guyanese, making Guyana a leading country as it relates to registrants and graduates.
The Ministry had, at that time, announced free access to 4000 certified online courses following a partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning.
Courses were offered by Ivy League universities and other reputable institutions in areas of study such as Arts, Business, Computer Science, Health, and Engineering on the online platform Coursera.
Coming out of the challenges posed by the pandemic, Guyana has witnessed a steadfast return to relative normalcy in the education sector, and has seen the expansion of the country’s only teacher training college with the aim of 100 per cent of teachers having been trained or are in training by 2024. (G12)