Coding, robotics comes to teachers’ college

Government and schools have an important role to play in providing a variety of vocational courses and skillsets for Barbadians who seek new job opportunities in the modern workplace, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw said Friday.

She was addressing participants of a coding and robotics workshop being held by the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.

Some 19 teachers based at tertiary institutions across the island are attending the workshop.

According to Bradshaw, the time is ripe for new innovative educational programmes for students to come on stream, as the current job market expands towards more tech jobs.

She said: “People don’t know what they have unless we give them opportunities, and therefore as a Government, we have to give opportunities not to the privileged few, but we have to give the opportunities to as many people across the board as possible.

“This programme is about preparing people for the future, being able to not just plan for now, but we want that while we are talking about COVID and all of the protocols and everything we have to be doing to keep everybody safe, that we are also planning for the future. That as educators you have the opportunity to pretty much test yourselves, and also to have opportunities [in] continuing education, because you never know what from this opportunity, you will decide to do.”

Bradshaw also revealed that additional kits for these courses are being sourced, given the high interest currently being seen among both students and teachers in coding and robotics courses.

The education minister said: “I think this coding actually empowers our tutors, to do things differently in the classroom. I think you always want to do something different, but this actually gives you the tools to be able to connect in the language that our younger people also understand as well.

“I know that in discussions with some of the principals that we have already spoken about allocating [monies] then purchasing a number of the robotics kits, so that as well can be offered at the tertiary level.”

Principal of Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw, who dubbed the participants “scratchers” because of the coding language they learned during nine interactive sessions so far, said that the introduction to coding to future classrooms is a welcome step in reimagining the educational landscape.

Dr Archer-Bradshaw said: “We all understand that the process of transformation we are looking at for our country, will not be immediate, however, we are encouraged by the fact that strides are being made to revolutionize our education system.

“When the instructors that participate in this workshop, and in subsequent workshops implement coding at their institutions, they know that they must do it in a very purposeful way.

“The tutors and instructors by honing their associated habits of mind and by developing certain competencies in their students will know unequivocally that they are contributing to the future development of Barbados, thereby enabling it to be a country that can improve its social and economic status.”
(SB)