Efforts by the Ministry of Education to improve the delivery of education as it relates to Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), is expected to be significantly boosted with the certification of four teachers.The recently certified teachers are Verbena Wilburg, Noella London-Joseph, and Kevaun Sears,Air Max 97 Silver Womens, who are undergoing programmes at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), and Kencil Banwarie, a student of the University of Guyana (UG).With sponsorship from the Organisation of American States (OAS) the teachers, with the support of the Ministry of Education, were able to undergo a 50-hour online course designed to help them integrate Information Technology in their teaching curriculum.The essential course entitled ‘Teacher Education for 21st Century Teachers’, was in fact offered to a cohort of educators drawn from across the Caribbean and Latin American.Education Minister Shaik Baksh, on Wednesday presented the local teachers who successfully completed the course with certificates of completion even as he underscored that the Ministry stands to benefit considerably.According to the Minister, the move to more effectively integrate ICTs in the curriculum is in keeping with the Education Ministry’s Strategic Plan.“In our Strategic Plan we have a goal over the next five years to have computer laboratories in all of our secondary schools and in 50 percent of our primaries and we are on the move.”And according to Baksh, an additional 60 schools across Guyana have been targeted for an ICT programme intended to enhance the delivery of education using technologies. This programme, according to the Minister,Cheap NHL Jerseys, will be fully funded by the government.The Education Ministry has also been in receipt of substantial assistance from alumni overseas. He further related that support has been garnered through a Canadian Non-Governmental Organisation,Cheap Nike Shox Shoes, Global Literacy Network, which has committed to providing computers to 120 schools countrywide over the next five years.And the venture, according to the Minister,Nike Shox Gravity Black, is already moving apace, even as efforts are being made to infrastructurally prepare some schools so that the computers could be properly secured.“This is a partnership arrangement which has already commenced. So far, 25 computers have been installed at the Diamond Secondary School on the East Bank of Demerara. Bygeval School on the East Coast of Demerara has also got about 20 computers,” the Minister disclosed.The OAS has also been instrumental in providing about 150 computers to the Ministry and has assisted in setting up a laboratory at the Government Technical Institute (GTI) where computers can be repaired and modified.“This happened over a year ago and it is really helping us in promoting ICTs in our school system because we have to keep abreast with technologies in the 21st century.”Simultaneous to the introduction of computers at schools countrywide, Minister Baksh revealed that the Ministry will also be continually addressing the need to train teachers. And this, according to the Minister, will warrant the support of the certified teachers.“While we set up infrastructure, we have to have very progressive training programmes where we can coop these teachers to help train other teachers.”He noted that plans are already apace to train 100 teachers during the current vacation period.Teachers from Regions One and Ten and from the District of Georgetown will be among the first batch of teachers to be trained before the new school year commences in September, Baksh revealed.According to OAS Country Representative, Denis Moses, while the OAS in the recent past has been involved in rendering assistance to the Education sector, the entity is still looking forward to more joint ventures as it relates to furthering the objectives of the sector.“I am heartened to be associated with events of such nature and I am hopeful that the development of the human resource base of member states,Cheap Air Force 1, in this case Guyana, would be harnessed in balancing the economic and welfare of the people of Guyana,” Moses noted.As the ICT initiative is expanded in the education sector, another batch of teachers will benefit from other available online training programmes.But according to Minister Baksh,NCAA Basketball Jerseys, Guyana will have to quickly get on board and commence running its own online programmes through the CPCE and UG. |