WHERE WILL THE TVET TEACHERS COME FROM?

Feb 09, 2014 News

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By Andy Moore- – Industrial Arts teacher

I now offer a brief historical perspective of technical teacher education in Guyana.
It should be noted that up to the early 1960s all teachers of the Government Training College, regardless of the subject areas that they intended to specialize in, had to do compulsory examinable technical and science subjects.
The training centres used for that programme were Queen’s College which had a technical training department, Kingston Handicraft Centre, The Carnegie School of Home Economics and Dolphin Government School, which had a handicraft department. These centres and others also catered for the technical teachers in training. This training gave the teachers who were not originally technically oriented an understanding, aptitude and a wholesome attitude towards technical education.
At the opening of Cyril Potter College of Education at Turkeyen in 1974, some five years after I graduated from the Government Training College at Battery Road, after a very intensive three-year programme as an Industrial Arts Teacher, I asked the principal of CPCE  where would the technical teachers come from.
As the secretary of the fledgeling Industrial Arts’ Teachers Association based at the Dolphin Government School,  I was aware of the urgent need for trained technical teachers, particularly with the advent of the Multilateral schools and the need for trained teachers for the thirteen technical departments in Georgetown and other operating and planned technical departments throughout Guyana .
Some of these training places are now called Practical Instruction Centres (PIC’s).  Until I am educated otherwise I will continue with Industrial Arts which has a more universal educational intention.
My concern at the opening of CPCE was that no provisions were made to physically incorporate technical education into that system by taking the opportunity to build  modern, woodwork, metalwork, electrical ,electronic and other technical laboratories on site despite the fact that there was and there still is adequate space to build an even more advanced Industrial Technology Centre and the fact that, since 1965 technical student teachers shuttled between the teacher’s college and the Government Technical Institute.
Further, a technical education facility within the CPCE would ensure that at least the national level one technician (high school) needs are met by training teachers to the necessary level three technician competence.  Further, that facility would function as an area vocational centre for high schools that still do not have technical laboratories.
It would also be used as an in-service and distance education technical training centre. Very importantly, a centre on this location will militate against the attitude of teachers of other disciplines who use derogatory remarks about the academic skills of technical people as a whole.
Between 1974 and 1979, I upgraded my qualifications to plan and implement Technical/ Vocational Education programmes from High School through Industry and University. I also became qualified to teach Technical Education from Primary School to University.
It is very encouraging to read Mr. Chinedu’s comments that technical education will be taught from “nursery to University”. I have done studies that investigated the cognitive manipulative skills of children from eight years old. All of the students of that post graduate course referred to that study as “pre-tech”.
I am convinced that we do our primary school children a disservice when we do not provide continuous opportunities to allow them to participate in technical studies which can be tailored to their levels. It is my conviction that Guyanese children are just as brilliant as the children we read of throughout the world who excel in technology, arts, music and sports. It is just that Guyanese primary school children are not given the universal educational opportunities.
Now forty years after I first asked this question, I now ask MrChinedu the same question. Where would all the technical education and technical vocational education personnel come from?
I now ask Mr.Chinedu how many education personnel (planners, teachers, lab technicians etc) are in place and how many more are needed for this national programme of more than 130 high schools, the practical instruction centres, the  technical /vocational schools, CPCE  University of Guyana and others that have hobby and  avocational  programmes .
I would be very grateful for Guyana as a whole to be informed whether we already have the Technical Trainers of Trainers in place. Are the laboratories where technical teacher training will take place and emulated, compliant with the regional standards? What adjustments are being made for pre-tech in the primary schools?
What is the status of the original thirteen Industrial Arts departments in Georgetown, particularly Kingston Industrial Arts Centre which was my first appointment after I graduated from college in 1969 and which I visited on January 9, 2014?
How many high schools are well equipped like the Multilateral schools were with at least three laboratories including metalwork, woodwork and electrical technology? How many high schools, special schools and PIC technical education teachers are being trained annually?
How many level three and four compliant technical teachers are being trained for the technical /vocational schools, CPCE and the University of Guyana?
The answers to these questions are very important as there is need for clarification on other related technical education matters. At this juncture it is my professional opinion that if Guyana is to be compliant with set national and regional standards Guyana needs about one thousand trained technical personnel immediately.

 

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