Ministry starts school tours

The Ministry of Education has started an islandwide school visitation initiative, aimed at assessing and enhancing the environment at various institutions of learning.

Led by Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw, alongside Director of Strategic Innovation Dr Idamay Denny and Head of the Change Management Unit Paul Murphy, the tours began on Tuesday with visits to Beyond the Box Education, a private institution, as well as the public St Lucy Primary and Darryl Jordan Secondary schools. 

Addressing the media following the visits, Dr Archer-Bradshaw shared that, so far, ministry officials are pleased with what they have been seeing. 

“I could see teachers engaged, students having fun while they are learning, and this is what we want to see even more as part of the education transformation agenda,” she said.

The education chief emphasised the multifaceted objectives of the transformation plan, focusing on improving student outcomes, enhancing teacher quality, and developing effective leadership. 

“We are going to be looking at improving our physical infrastructure as well as digital infrastructure. We will be looking at the operations at the Ministry of Education itself, seeing how we can be more effective and more efficient; and lastly, we will be looking at the regulations that govern the teaching service, everything that we do in education, and we will be looking to upgrade those where necessary,” she shared. 

Head of the Change Management Unit, Dr Paul Murphy gave the assurance that the ministry has not forsaken its bold year-old plan to revolutionise education for all students, noting that they have been “working feverishly” to develop necessary proposals. 

“I know some of you may be saying, ‘we haven’t heard much from the ministry of late with respect to education transformation’, but it doesn’t mean that we haven’t been working,” he added. 

Among plans to support the agenda, Murphy revealed that the ministry is set to release a proposal for curriculum review and revision. Additionally, a consultancy will soon commence to develop an inclusive education policy and strategy. 

He also shared on the recently concluded modern school infrastructure design competition, aimed at giving a facelift to buildings from nursery through to secondary levels, revealing that the winners will be announced in July. 

Murphy further listed professional development for educators and other stakeholders such as officers at the ministry and parents, as another key focus area which will take precedence over the summer holiday. 

“In fact, this very week, we have a community-designed school improvement workshop happening at the Caribbean Development Bank [where] principals, deputy principals, heads of department, parents, students [and] ancillary staff all gathered to look at plans for their individual schools for the next academic year,” he said. 

“In addition to that, we are working very closely with the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College to ensure that professional development reaches every single teacher in the system – and that’s one of the reasons that we’re collaborating with the renowned Columbia University,” he added, making mention of the recently signed memorandum of understanding between the two institutions. 

Despite the ongoing plans, the change management lead admitted a need to “do things differently across the system in terms of regulations and at the legislative level”. 

“Therefore, we are going to be going out to tender very soon for consultancies to assist us with the review and revision of our education app, and the establishment of an external quality assurance body for the education system,” he shared. 

“You’ve heard numerous times about the establishment of the Teacher Service Commission, and we’re also going to be looking at the Leadership Institute as well for school leaders. There are a number of things planned for education transformation,” Murphy added. 

(SM)