Plans are underway to officially launch the Dominica Education Enhancement Project, funded by the Government of Dominica, with counterpart support of US$420,000 and a US$4M loan facility from the Caribbean Development Bank.
This project, which is costing close to twelve million Eastern Caribbean Dollars seeks to improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the educational system by enhancing the learning environment at primary and secondary schools.
It is also geared upgrading the institutional framework and improving teacher quality.
“Under the project a large number of teachers will receive training geared at augmenting competencies in key academic subjects and non-academic areas such as special education, guidance counselling, educational clinical psychology, early screening and diagnosis, multi-grade and differentiated teaching methods, numeracy instruction, educational assessment and curriculum implementation. The capacity of primary and secondary schools to deliver the curriculum will be strengthened through the development of curricula and the significant provision of tools, equipment and materials, particularly in the area of technical and vocational education and training,” a press release states.
The official launch will take place at 3:00 p.m. on the Terrace of Windsor Park Sports Stadium on Monday, 5th July, 2010.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit is expected to deliver the feature address.
The ceremony will also be attended by officials of the Caribbean Development Bank, members of the Project Steering Committee as well as other stakeholders of the project.
Although the funds seem to be largely insufficient for the task ahead it is a commendable move on the part of the Government. Government needs to bear in mind that more qualifications by teachers should be matched by an increase in pay. If teachers are not compensated adequately after all this training many of them won’t be motivated to do the at hand and the investment would be in vain. I really think that teachers are poorly paid, their salaries should reflect their qualifications and positions such as Head of Departments and Deputy Principal should be made official with a set salary instead of just a responsibility allowance. There is also no incentive to be a Principal because a Principal is just paid about $300 or so dollars more than a graduate teacher whereas this position carries with it so many responsibilities. Even at the state college the salaries are not interesting. Government seriously needs to revisit the renumeration of teachers.
While many of us may want to make this a politics issue, it is not. This is a national issue.Something like this is paramount if we want our students to succeed in the future.Once our teachers are properly trained they will be better equiped to do their jobs, therefore this is a great opportunity for our teachers.
Big things poppin.You the best bro.
This is a step in the right direction. We are competing with other Caribbean islands and more so the world and we need to have our students excelling in high school especially in the area of maths and English. These are two universal subjects that our students need to master before they graduate from high school. Some of our teachers also need to be educated before they are placed in the classrooms in order that our students show progress and excell. All teachers should be College graduates before they are placed in the classrooms and show that they are capable and competent in the areas of study or the subjects that they are to teach.
Good look P.M..you a man of vision.continue to work for the development of the young generation.
Education is one of the many tools to solving many of the problems we face, no better way to alter the destiny of a people than by making available a sound education, continued enhancements in techniques and delivery systems. There is no better way to free one’s self from the disease of ignorance and poverty than by the means of educating one’s self, so this initiative is one that should be most welcomed and I will applauded the PM for the implementation of a plan that has the potential to affect the lives of many of our people in a profound way.
Here’s my issue and not just with this one but with all the workings of our public institutions is that we lack the transparency needed to make programs like this be successful.
Unless we build within our institutions checks and balances, operate and abide by law and hold people accountable we risk the chance of this becoming one of issues we latter have a kneejerk reaction to, then be all gossipy about how we never got the funding, the money was spent on some other project; we are all too familiar with the many complains.
So with breaking with the norm I would love for the PM to tell us at the launching the safeguards that are in place to guarantee that all monies borrowed and made available for this need initiative will be spent to facilitate the intended goal, that this will be an open process where interested and non- interested folks can easily obtain accurate information about monies spent, progress reports and real life benefits from the implementation of DEEP.
Let’s get this one right!
I see wat u mean…..in other words,no more handouts and hand me downs…..nice!!!!!!