Chief Education Officer, Karen Best, speaking at the launch of the School Teacher Effectiveness Plans (STEPs). (E. Walker/MRD)
With the launch of the Implementation of the School Teacher Effectiveness Plans (STEPs), Government has attained the key objectives set out in two teacher effectiveness consultancies.
Chief Education Officer, Karen Best emphasised this recently as she addressed the launch of the programme at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College (ETTC).
The event was attended by Education Minister, Ronald Jones, other Education officials and representatives from the sponsors, Caribbean Development Bank and the University of New Brunswick, Canada.
Mrs. Best said: “Two years ago, the Ministry of Education identified certain necessary elements of our school system which required enhancements to support the strengthening of pedagogy. The Ministry, through funding from Central Government and the Caribbean Development Bank, embarked on the journey for positive systemic change – change which focuses on our primary beneficiaries, our students.
“The STEPS initiative has already realised several benefits, including enhanced teacher education and professional development programmes, the development of a STEP framework as well as the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework to guide the measurement of individual students and overall performance.”
The implementation of these quality enhancement initiatives, she added, had resulted in greater collaboration among teachers, principals, the Faculty of Education at the ETTC, and various departments and units of the Ministry.
Citing examples, she noted the recent creative teachers’ resources development workshop, conducted by the Media Resource Department and last week’s Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) workshops, facilitated by the Department of Education in New Brunswick, Canada.
“We see all this as important because we are equipping our teachers with skills so that we can reach all of our students,” said the Chief Education Officer, adding there was a renewed awareness by stakeholders of the inputs required to generate benefits for students and set in motion change for charting greater success in the educational system.