Government, through the ministry of education is continuing to take action to improve the performance of students across the island.
On Monday, the Ministry Of Education, in collaboration with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat began a two-week training for teachers under the Early Learners Programme.
“The intent is to ensure that we adopt a proactive approach to ensuring students’ performance. We target the early years; the students from K up to Grade 3 so that their improvement will permeate through the system,” Assistant Chief Education Officer, Dr. Jeffrey Blaize, explained.
He further explained that the programme has several dimensions which includes training for teachers by local trainers. Dr. Blaize says this ensures the sustainability of the programme.
“Teacher growth and development and building capacity is at the hub of whatever we do in Education. If we don’t ensure that our teachers are updated with the knowledge and skills then we would not be doing justice to the system,” he said.
Other components include the development of a language policy, teacher professional development, a reading curriculum and teaching and learning resources.
This pilot training for the Early Learners Programme will be conducted for teachers of twelve primary schools on the island. Senior Curriculum Officer, Robert Guiste, explained that the entire programme will be rolled out for all primary school teachers in September 2017.
In week one, Grade K and Grade 1 teachers will be trained and in the second week Grades 2 and 3 teachers.