Tewarie: Education needs to attract good people

A major challenge facing the education sector today was how to attract good people to the profession, and to retain their services for a significant period of time thereafter. This is the view of Dr Bhoe Tewarie, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies. He expressed this at the opening ceremony of a symposium titled “Achieving Education Quality Through Teacher Education,” at the Learning Resource Centre, UWI, yesterday.

Stating that teachers’ salaries were not high despite significant changes, he said, “teaching today is harder than 20 years ago,” and people needed to face the reality that there was and is, increasing evidence of poor management of schools. He also stressed that while the gap between information and technology needed to be addressed, a process had to be developed to help persons interested in other career paths, make a smooth transition. Concluding by calling for a stronger partnership and greater collaboration between the Ministry of Education and the university, Tewarie said the world was in the age of knowledge acquisition and implementation, but a better education system was necessary to keep up with the constant changes.

Responding to these calls by Tewarie, Education Minister Hazel Manning acknowledged that the development of a country’s human resources was done primarily through its education system. To support this point, she revealed the Ministry had just established a Teacher Professional Development Unit whose aims included helping to upgrade teachers, developing recommendations for teacher activities and developing a rationalisation plan for the teacher training colleges and early childhood centres. Adding that teachers had to be capable of delivering clear and precise instructions to all their charges, Manning said teachers also had to be prepared to deliver care and love to those students who warranted more than just academic guidance.

Speaking with reporters following the symposium, Manning said there was a definite need for teachers to be trained, as a large percentage of secondary school teachers were not qualified, but the unit would help to improve the skills and capabilities of such persons. This addition is in keeping with Government’s Vision 2020 plan, claimed Manning. Questioned as to whether the Biche High School will ever be opened and when, Manning replied “We are waiting for the report, and as soon as we have that, it will be made public.” Decisions will be taken concerning the school, once the ministry has received the report.