Five hundred and six teachers graduated at the Cyril Potter College of Education’s (CPCE) 81st graduation ceremony yesterday at the National Cultural Centre under the theme “Quality Instructional Leaders: Empowering 21st Century Learners.”
GINA said that four hundred and forty-four teachers were conferred with an Associate Degree, with 83 certified in early childhood, 159 in primary education, 132 in secondary academic, 56 in secondary pre-school vocational and 14 in technical instruction.
The other 62 teachers received a Trained Teachers’ Certificate. Of this number, 21 were trained in early childhood education, 37 in primary education and four in secondary academic, GINA said.
Delivering the feature address, Registrar of the University of Guyana, Dr. Nigel Gravesande said that the graduation should be more than just the conferral of certificates and degrees to the graduates. GINA reported that Gravesande said that the day should also be a reminder, of the inter-connected relationship involving CPCE, the student teachers and the Ministry of Education.
Gravesande cited a recent ELAC study which estimates that the cost to train one single teacher leading to a certificate and/or an associate degree in the region is US$8,000. “If I was to do my mathematics, the cost of your training at minimum would have cost the taxpayers of this country in excess of $590 million. You have to give back something,” Gravesande declared.
It is also in this context that he urged the graduating batch to become agents of change in times of “economic, social, cultural and even spiritual turbulence. We all have the potential to act as a catalyst for growth, development and what is right,” GINA reported him as saying.
CPCE’s principal, Viola Rowe in her report noted an increase in the number of males graduating. Of the total number of students that
