Latest update April 6th, 2025 11:06 AM
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Consultation for National Teaching Council commences
The need for an autonomous National Teaching Council was emphasised yesterday when the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) collaborated to host a consultation at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.
This is the first move towards the realisation of the body which, once established, will cater to the licensing and continuous education of local teachers.
GTU President Colin Bynoe addresses the gathering at the consultation.
According to GTU President, Colin Bynoe, plan for an introduction of a local National Teaching Council was premised on a CARICOM spearheaded meeting which was held in St Lucia in June of 2010.
That meeting, which was designed to establish standards for teachers in the Caribbean, attracted education officers, heads of educational institutions, teachers and trade union representatives of respective territories, according to Bynoe.
The objective of that forum was to utilise a participative approach to enable open dialogue and region-wide contribution towards the creation of a draft document entitled ‘Guidelines for establishing teaching Councils in the Caribbean Community’.
Its creation was premised on the fact that the teaching profession is at the core of socio-economic changes. As such it has been highlighted that the move towards establishing teaching councils will give the profession leadership and sustained quality.
A preface to the draft document states that “already CARICOM in a partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat is leading the process for harmonisation of teacher qualifications among Caribbean countries. As Caribbean leaders move towards strengthening the Caribbean Single Market Economy (CSME), nationals must prepare themselves to take advantage of freedom of movement within the Region hence quality teaching and learning must be assured.”
Having heard of the CARICOM initiative at the April 2012 GTU teachers’ conference Minister of Education Priya Manickchand was elated enough to encourage the teachers’ union to work towards establishing a national council, according to Bynoe.
“She asked that we have our own consultation because it is important that if any country is going to establish teaching councils that you have wide consultations,” the GTU President added.
It was against this background, he said, that the GTU sought to not only involve its members with the Education Ministry but also teachers as well as students to bring yesterday’s consultation to fruition.
The event was also graced by educators from Caricom territories and had representation from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
An overview of the rationale for establishing a national teaching council was presented at the forum yesterday which was backed by deliberations on the importance of advancing the teaching profession through teacher empowerment.
According to the draft CARICOM guidelines, establishment of a Teaching Council is less about finding additional resources and more about maximising the use of existing resources to sustain a quality teaching profession.
However, implications are that in the process of establishing a Council, the respective member state would first assemble all its units/departments that deal with teachers, review them, and to the extent necessary, reorient them and expand their mandates to incorporate regulatory services and professional development.
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