Colleges partner

Erdiston Teachers’ Training College and its students will now benefit from the experience and expertise of George Brown College of Toronto, Canada after the two educational institutions entered into a partnership today.

Officials representing the two colleges signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) today, during a virtual and face-to-face ceremony which took place at Erdiston’s Colin Hope Lecture Theatre.

Chairman of Board of Erdiston Dr. Sylvia Henry announced that the training college and George Brown would be working collaboratively in areas such as applied research which she said would help to critically analyze the extent to which the local education system prepares Barbadian learners for migration to universities and colleges in Canada.

“Maybe we will be working together on topics like gender disparity and how best to address vulnerable groups such as males or females in education, or maybe, analyzing or researching those who need to benefit most from inclusive education. Maybe we will be researching how technology can be best utilized to maximize teaching and learning, or maybe, an international comparison of effective early childhood development models, practices, and policies.

“But I am looking forward to tutors of the two colleges co-teaching, given that zoom and similar platforms have been supporting collaborations that travelled facilitated in the past. There are so many other benefits that can be derived from our partnership,” Dr Henry said.

Vice President of Academics at the Canadian College, Dr. Cory Ross, said the MOU will foster an enduring partnership and engagements that will be mutually beneficial to the colleges.

“One of the things that we are looking forward to is not only our faculty working with your faculty, but also our students collaborating on projects. A very strong area of our college is early childhood education. Our school has been providing training for early childhood for many years. We have over 1000 college students throughout diploma, degrees, and certificate programmes and have over 1000 children enrolled in our childcare centres. In our programmes, faculty and educators come together to engage in research and practice to shape and support the early childhood workforce,” Dr Ross said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw, said the signing of the MOU signals a deepening of the relationship between Canada and Barbados and a commitment by both countries to sharing best practices and an understanding that even in the face of a global pandemic focus must not only be on the present, but preparations must be made for the future.

Bradshaw said it is widely accepted that international collaboration between educational institutions is a critical element, and added that such partnerships offer substantial prospects for faculty staff and students.

“However, the benefits afforded to the staff, educators, and learners, along the lines of international collaboration between educational institutions also create advantages on a national and international level. At the individual level, faculty, staff, and students will be able to gain global experience through reciprocal short and long-term exchanges.

“This measure is designed to internationalize the curriculum at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College as defined by the Organisation of Economic Corporation and Development (OECD). The OECD defines and internationalizes curriculum as one which has an international orientation, a context, aimed at preparing students for performing in an international, multi-cultural context, and one which is designed for domestic students, as well as for foreign students,” she said.

The minister noted that the knowledge gained from international visits whether virtual or face-to face augments and widens the view of participants while providing them with the opportunity to experience world events from an informed perspective while sharing cultural differences.

The minister also pointed out that she was pleased about George Brown’s artificial intelligence programme, considering that Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley places great emphasis on ensuring that Barbados’ education sector is at the cutting edge.

“We are about to embark – and certainly Erdiston Teacher’s Training College has been a part of coding and robotics to our teachers – we are getting ready to roll it out across our nursery, our primary and our secondary schools and the intention certainly is that we will also be embracing the world of artificial intelligence, so that is certainly an exciting and welcoming piece of news this afternoon,” Bradshaw said.

Bradshaw extended gratitude to Sonia Marville Carter for the role she played in facilitating the MOU.