THE Education Ministry, in collaboration with the High Commission of Canada, on Tuesday, launched the Specialist Mathematics Teacher Training Programme at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) in Kingston.
The training programme is the first initiative under the Canada-CARICOM Expert Deployment Mechanism (CCEDM) in Guyana, which is being funded by the government of Canada and implemented by the Canadian Executive Services Organisation (CESO).
Under the four-day training programme, 30 primary school teachers from Region Four will be trained to act as resource specialists in their particular catchment area.
The programme prepares the primary school teachers to serve as Specialist Mathematics Teachers of the “Numbers and Operations” strand of Grade One to Four curriculum and to develop a repository of resources for them to use as they plan and implement their sessions with teachers in their school.
“This is significant because, as an agency and education sector, we have undergone to develop a renewed curriculum anchored in best practices. [It is] our vision, our goal to do something different to engender different results,” NCERD Director, Quenita Walrond-Lewis, said as she made remarks at the launch.
Walrond-Lewis explained that the development which the programme will bring about aligns with the government’s plans for the advancement of the country’s human resource, through the schools.
The improvements in mathematics are expected to contribute to development of critical thinkers and problem solvers, among the populace.
Facilitators for the training include Hylin Mclaren, a specialist from Red River Valley School Division in Canada, along with NCERD Specialists, Leslin Elliot, Kathleen Parasnath and Vishnu Panday, who is also Head of Mathematics at NCERD.
Panday explained that while the programme is starting in Region Four and with only one section of the curriculum, the ultimate aim is to train specialist teachers in all of the education districts for all of the various strands of the primary school Mathematics curriculum.
This is envisioned to lead to better teachers, which will ultimately lead to better students.
“The real deal is to make an improvement in student learning,” commented Panday.
Also making remarks at the event was the Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Mark Berman, who conveyed Canada’s enthusiasm to be part of the development programme. Bergman noted that with Guyana at a critical juncture of development as a young oil and gas producing nation, the growth of human capacity is of pivotal importance.
“We’re delighted to be able to organise this and bring an expert here to work with you all; it couldn’t have come at a better time. Guyana is at a significant point in history and growth, so we are extremely proud that at this pivotal time CCEDM is here to help,” Berman said.
CCDEM is a four-year project covering nine countries, which focuses on offering demand-driven capacity building assistance to government agencies, with education being just one of a wide variety of sectors that the assistance is offered in.
