A two-day Teacher Education Workshop was launched on Thursday to help reform the delivery of teacher education across Guyana in both technical and vocational areas to ensure efficient and effective practices in the classroom.

The Ministry of Education in collaboration with the World Bank conducted the workshop at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.

The two-day workshop focused on articulating government’s vision with proposed policies and activities necessary for reforming the delivery of teacher education with the World Bank’s support.

GINA quoted Minister of Education Shaik Baksh as saying that the Education Strategic Plan (2008-2013) must be implemented with proper monitoring and evaluation, and senior managers must account for their areas of responsibilities.
Baksh said also that his ministry has been working to get all unqualified teachers trained, and with the assistance of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) notices have been sent to those teachers informing them that they must complete their training by a stipulated period.

According to Baksh, many of the teachers graduating from the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and the University of Guyana (UG) are not delivering education to students at acceptable standards. Against that background, the Education Ministry is implementing systems where teachers can upgrade themselves with the necessary training for classrooms.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education recently received close to
US$20 million, most of which will be spent in the hinterland communities on the school feeding programme, since many students travel far distances to get to school, and on textbooks and incentives for teachers.

Guyana has benefited from the assistance of the Canadians with the “Guyana Basic Education Teacher” training programme (GBET) which has been running for the past five years. This programme has proven to be very successful and the ministry hopes that it can attain many scholarships through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) so as to ensure some teachers benefit from it, GINA concluded.