Barbados a digital education pioneer with Google first – Minister

arbados is the first Caribbean nation to implement Google Workspace Plus for Education as part of a sweeping technological transformation of its school system, Education Minister Kay McConney said on Wednesday.

Google Workspace for Education Plus is a suite of tools and apps that helps schools create a digital learning and teaching ecosystem. It includes all the features of the Education Standard and Teaching and Learning Upgrade, plus additional features for some services.

Speaking at the 4th Ministerial Summit of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), McConney said the cloud-based classroom software was part of a comprehensive strategy combining infrastructure improvements, policy reforms, and digital resources aimed at modernising the island’s education system.

“We are seeking to go after that as a package because we recognise that there is no one thing. It isn’t a piece of software, it is not a platform, it is infrastructure, it is devices, it is a digital learning resource package, it is an education management information system,” McConney told delegates at the summit which focused on artificial intelligence and technological innovations in Caribbean education.

A pilot programme for first-year secondary school students has introduced digital textbooks alongside additional learning resources that track both pupil and teacher progress. The initiative builds upon a successful device distribution scheme launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to provide equipment free of charge to schools.

The minister revealed that schools with better digital capabilities have demonstrated superior performance.

“What we’ve learned is that environment can create results, and we have found that those schools that are better equipped to move in a digital space have been many of those schools that are doing better than others,” she said.

Working with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the ministry is enhancing school connectivity whilst developing an Education Management Information System (EMIS) policy framework with various partners. EMIS, first introduced in Belize among CARICOM countries, creates a digital paper trail that follows a child’s achievement, assessments and other records throughout their entire school life.

Continuous professional development for Information Technology Coordinators (ITCs) remains crucial to the programme’s success.

“Our ITCs have had to be trained in a significant way, and that will be continuous professional development and not just a one-off training,” McConney explained.

The Google Workspace Plus platform will enable teachers to create, publish, and share content, though McConney emphasised the need for careful oversight: “Of course, it requires people within the ministry being able to evaluate and curate that content so that what goes out there is actually something that is consistent with the direction that we want to go.”

The minister stressed that policy development and monitoring frameworks are essential components of the digital transformation strategy.

“We look at it not only from what is the thing or those things that make up that package; we look at what is the policy that ought to govern it and how do we now prepare ourselves as a ministry to monitor practice and be able to do that,” she said.

Addressing the summit, themed Artificial Intelligence and Technological Innovations in Shaping Caribbean Education, McConney emphasised the importance of taking a holistic approach to educational technology.

“We have to… create the entire package that will allow us to move from data-driven decisions all the way to a platform that will facilitate the kind of collaboration we want across the system, as well as the learning resources that can be co-created by us as well as those that we can benefit from, from others,” she said.

The summit brought together education leaders from across the region to explore how technology could revolutionise Caribbean learning systems. (SM)