Hiccups identified in CPCE’s ADE Programme

Jan 07, 2013 News

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– emailed exam papers among allegations

By Leon Suseran
Several hiccups and problems have been identified within the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) Associate Degree in Education (ADE) Programme. A senior official, in an interview with this newspaper, highlighted a plethora of difficulties and problems associated with the teacher-training programme in the Berbice centres, among them, allegations of exam papers being sent via e-mail and hard copies arriving at the centres hours late.
Additionally there is the allegation that student-teachers are being made to sit up to four exams in one day.
Berbice has two CPCE ‘satellite centres’ at New Amsterdam, which trains Nursery and Primary School Teachers and the Johns Corentyne Centre, which trains Secondary School Teachers.
The ADE Programme started in 2010. It replaced the Trained Teacher’s Certificate (TTC) Programme. The first batch of ADE teachers graduated a few weeks ago at the National Cultural Centre in Georgetown, the largest ever graduation of the college.
However, many are questioning the quality of output (graduates) at the recent graduation, since the ADE programme was shorter—two years (the TTC Programme was 3 years) — and it was riddled with problems, as the Berbice official explained.
The official compared the smooth systems experienced under the TTC Programme to the one with difficulties currently being experienced under the administering of the ADE Programme.
“We used to receive examination papers like about a week before or three days before…but with the ADE programme this is not happening…the papers, we receive the day of the exam, and we have problems like having an exam at 9 and students writing that exam until 1 pm and they would go and sit there waiting anxiously to write the exam and I think that this is very frustrating.”
“To prepare for your exam and then exams start several hours later…that is one of the problems we are facing,” the official declared.
The next issue, the official stated, was with student- teachers having to write three to four examinations in one day.
“Examinations would last sometimes up to 8pm in the night.”
The official went on to say that never in the history of the college have exam papers been e-mailed to the satellite centre and questioned the integrity of the papers which could be compromised as a result of this process.
The official, specifically speaking about the Johns Centre, stated that “now you got [exam] papers coming through e-mails wild west! And then we have to print them out from the e-mails and give the students because sometimes the times these papers would arrive, the copy shops in the area would be closed.”
Another problem described was student- teachers receiving results “for subjects they never wrote.” “When we have exam timetables, we can’t just give teachers timetables and expect them to come out because exams are written from 9am-5pm, and for us to have these teachers to come and write exams from 9am, we gotta get permission from the Education Officer and this is a trouble by itself— when you take exam time tables to the officer, it is very difficult to obtain permission for the teachers to leave their schools”.
The Regional Education Department would normally have to grant permission to student- teachers to leave school during school hours to attend CPCE to write exams, if the need arises.
The official cannot say whether the other satellite centres across the country are having similar problems with the ADE Programme, “but I know New Amsterdam is the same nonsense receiving examination papers via e-mail…getting exam papers on the day of exams and all those nonsense.”
There are several satellite centres of CPCE across Guyana, namely Johns, Port Mourant; New Amsterdam; Georgetown; Linden; Anna Regina; Vreed-en-Hoop and in Region One.
The individual is of the view that the programme itself has caused all these problems.
“I don’t think they are ready for the ADE Programme because the duration in which the teacher would have to cover the material to be taught, it is not enough— it’s too much work— soon as students would finish a semester, they don’t even have a day of rest, they have to jump into the other semester.”
Students have no time to recuperate and would also have to attend classes through all the school holidays.
The ADE Programme is so structured that one academic year is divided into 3 semesters, whereas the TTC Programme was divided into 2 semesters per academic year, with rest time during most if not all of the school holidays.
The official is of the view that the stringent, compact ADE Programme is indeed impacting on the output/results of the students. “I want to feel so, because it is one of the reasons why we are having the amount of failures that we are having now”.
“The officials— seniors— would have known much better to sit with these people that are financing the programme— sit with them and talk to them and let them understand the students and teachers that we have and how much work they [the teachers] can handle and those kinds of things, and I don’t think that was done.”
“Lecturers are frustrated, too, in so many ways, and there are times when they would have meetings at the main campus in Turkeyen where they would talk about these problems but nothing being done.”
“If they want to continue the ADE Programme, I think they need to extend the time or cut the content— the work— and if they don’t want to do either, they need to revert to the TTC programme…because this thing is not working.”
The official also noted that the recent teachers who graduated in the ADE Programme are clueless as to whether they would be given a salary increase. Salary upgrades were automatic under the TTC Programme.
Additionally, it was said that after teachers would have completed the ADE Programme at CPCE, they would just have to spend two additional years at the University of Guyana to obtain a Bachelor of Education Degree. This, too, the official said is uncertain. “When you call Georgetown CPCE, the official said they do not know, and that they are not certain.”
Several efforts to contact Debbie Thomas, Principal of the Cyril Potter College of Education proved futile.

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