Latest update February 5th, 2025 6:25 AM
Strategic leadership a main factor to improve education system – says Dr. O’Toole
School of the Nations Director, Dr. Brian O’Toole
-As major Education Leadership Conference commences today
Progress in any education system is dependent on strategic leadership. However, the whole concept of education leadership is one that must give deliberate attention to “where we are going and what we need to bring about needed change,” Dr. Brian O’Toole said yesterday.
Dr. O’Toole remarks came on the eve of an education conference set to commence today at the New Market, Georgetown, School of the Nations.
As the host of the conference, Dr. O’Toole said that Nations has been able to spearhead a movement to help Guyana better recognise what is needed to improve the education sector. In this regard, he disclosed School of the Nations has been able to collaborate with the Education Ministry to host the conference.
Some 60 education officials, including Regional Education Officers and head teachers, from across the country are expected to attend the conference which will be graced by a number of key global leaders in education who are scheduled to make presentations during the conference.
“All of our international speakers have arrived and when you see them together it really is a group of exceptional people…We have people from Argentina, Afghanistan, Canada, the United States,” said Dr. O’Toole, the Director of Nations.
“The guy from Afghanistan, they threatened to kill him twice because he educates girls, and I watched his videos. Literally, it moves you to tears when you see what he has achieved. He has been recognised as one of the 10 outstanding educators in Afghanistan.”
Another notable presence at the conference will be the Head of the Cambridge University for Latin America who comes from Argentina. Speaking of the Cambridge representative yesterday, Dr. O’Toole was eager to inform that, “she just arrived and we are happy about that because a major part of the conference will be the launch of the Cambridge Certificate in education leadership programme. That is why Cambridge sent this lady from Argentina to introduce that programme and we are doing this with the Ministry of Education.”
The forum will also see in attendance the Administrative Manager for Limited Resource Teachers Training [LRTT], an organisation, which is known to deliver transformational in-service training to teachers in countries with limited resources.
The conference participants will also hear from an educator from Gambia, who, according to Dr. Dr. O’Toole, is well known for her role in educating impoverished girls in order to ensure that they are qualified to attend university. “It is really an impressive group of people we have here for the conference; who are totally dedicated to what they do,” assured Dr. O’Toole who along with a number of other influential education-oriented individuals will be making presentations.
“The whole concept of education leadership is to look at where we are going and what we need to bring about that change,” said Dr. O’Toole who is slated to launch a publication on 40 years of education leadership, which he authored.
The conference, according to Dr. O’Toole, will take the form of various presentations during the course of the mornings and interactive workshops in the afternoons.
“What we have done is to bring in people who are leaders to address the challenge of the whole concept of change. It is not just educational change but it is change in terms of the development of a country and what we need to get there.”
“It is a number of different objectives all tied together…”
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