While efforts at enhancing teacher effectiveness are not unique to Barbados, Education Minister Ronald Jones wants them to be guided by the need to see students excel.

He was addressing today???s launch of The Consultancy for the Enhancement of Teacher Education Programmes in Teacher Effectiveness at the Erdiston Teachers??? Training College, at the Hilton Barbados.

Stating that the teacher must be a constant learner who continually keeps his/her classroom alive in a dynamic and sensible way, Mr. Jones said: ???Whatever teachers do have to be guided by the notion that our children must succeed. Whatever we think our rights and responsibilities are at the end of the day, it is the success of our children which must be at the heart of what we do.???

As he stressed that teachers had to re-evaluate their profession and role as a consummate professional, the Education Minister stated: ???We know that there is much more which has to be done to lift so many of our children out of the current state of underachievement and this can be done working in partnerships.

???The teacher is a partner with the student in the classroom. The teacher is a partner with the professional leader of the school???and if all don???t work together along with parental support, the hundreds of millions of dollars we have invested in education over time will not prove efficient or effective.???

Principal of the Erdiston Teachers??? Training College, Barbara Parris, in acknowledging the benefits of the consultancy to her institution and Barbados as a whole, said teacher effectiveness was about ???improving, boosting and making better???.

???We at Erdiston are always seeking to improve our functioning and we therefore look forward to the knowledge which the consultants will share with us to facilitate our professional development.

???Since the faculty of Erdiston is responsible for the training of teachers and other education personnel, we will then be able to transmit our new knowledge to them, thereby enhancing their functioning, both at the level of delivery in the classroom and as educational leaders,??? Mrs. Parris said, noting that members of the school population on the island would be the greatest beneficiaries.

The consultancy is another component of the Education Sector Enhancement Programme (ESEP) II being undertaken by Government in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank.

joy-ann.gill@barbados.gov.bb

Pin It on Pinterest