CPCE, UG launch Associate Degree in Education

Nov 03, 2010 News

The first batch of trainees reading for the degree stand as they sing a National Song for the guests.

– Teachers can now attain degree in four years instead of seven

Teachers are now able to read for an Associate Degree in Education in a joint four-year programme that sees them shaving three years off the previous arrangement. The administering institutions are the Cyril Potter College of Education and the University of Guyana, School of Education and Humanities.
Calling the previous pathway that saw a teacher tied up for so many years an anachronism, Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh told the trainees gathered that this new Associate Degree was an integral part of the Education Ministry’s strategic plan. He highlighted the pivotal role that teacher education will play in the development of the country, saying that well educated and trained teachers are absolutely necessary if the latent potential and abilities of the country’s children are to be tapped.
According to Baksh, the new degree is designed to create a better quality of teacher, it sees the teachers undertaking two years of intensive study at the CPCE then heading over to the University of Guyana where their education will be rounded off with another two years of instruction. Baksh said to the trainees, “It will be an all new curriculum with all new courses – it should be very different from the current teachers’ training programme.” He went on to say that the trainees will receive training from specialists, both local and foreign, in a number of key areas such as literacy and numeracy, at CPCE and the University.
The Minister also said, “Trainees will not leave the CPCE without being fully versed in the technology of teaching.” He spoke of a large computer lab to be developed at CPCE for use with this and other programmes saying that the new teachers will themselves receive specialized training in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
His next announcement, however, was met with rousing applause, when he told the trainees that the Ministry wants them to have access to their very own laptop computers. Baksh went on to say that it is the Ministry’s aim to ensure that every teacher who leaves the training college is able to deliver work of a high standard which covers every aspect of the education that they are trying to impart to young people.
In addition, the library resources will be updated, both paper-wise and electronically. Even the persons training the trainees – the education managers – have not been forgotten. According to Baksh, specialists will be brought in to work with these persons as well to ensure that the quality of instruction that they are passing on to their charges is of the required calibre.
Another change that this programme sees over previous ones, is that the required practical period that each teacher has to serve will no longer be one year but has been contracted to some 19 weeks.
Upon completion of the programme, the teachers will also be subjected to a one-year induction period. During this time their performance in the classroom will be closely observed. The Ministry has also made provisions for senior teachers who have been adequately trained to serve as mentors to the new teachers coming into the system.
Chairman of the Board of Governors of the College, Mr. Olato Sam, also addressed the gathering Monday. He told the trainees that they have been charged to be the pioneers of their year, adding that they are some of the highest qualified persons to enter the college in years and the corresponding expectations are just as high. He told the trainees that they will be expected to deliver better performance at the College, the University and after that improved classroom performance and through that effort, better educated students.
Mr. Sam told the students that this is a new degree and it therefore comes with new expectations, new rules, a new curriculum and a new approach.
He said that the Board of Governors and the CPCE Administration are committed to ensuring that trainees have a better experience while at the college and deliver better performances in the schools as well as at the college.