CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (October30, 2006)
Teachers on Nevis received sound advice on Friday October 27, 2006, when retired teacher and Mr Anthony Jones urged them to continue to give freely to children who came to school on a daily basis, mindful that they as teachers had much to give.
Mr Jones was at the time addressing hundreds of teachers on Nevis after he was named their honouree at the 22nd Annual Professional Day hosted by the Department of Education in collaboration with the Nevis Teachers Union. The event was held at the Eden Brown Church of God Conference Room. This year’s theme was “Quality Teachers for Quality Education Supporting Teaching Excellence”. “You must continue to broaden your scope and widen your vision as society changes. You can no longer be interested in what takes place in and around the school but instead we have to show concern in what in happening in every sphere of human development in the home, church and community. We must find what is happening in the workplace; investigate what is happening with our boys on the streets and only so we will be able to create programmes and put structures in place to support the needs of children and hence support teacher excellence,” he said.
Principal Education Officer Mrs Jennifer Hodge extended words of appreciation to Mr Jones for his sterling contribution to education in Nevis and attributed the successes being enjoyed by teachers was due to the foundation he had set during his tenure as a teacher.
Notwithstanding, Mrs Hodge explained that over the past three years much emphasis had been placed on quality teachers for quality education as initiated by the UNESCO. She said although Nevis did not have the financial resources to put the entire infrastructure in place at once, it had the fundamental resource of education ““ some of the most dedicated and committed teachers ““ who the Department of Education recognised were the heart and soul of the education system.
“We are making steady and purposeful strides towards the quality education that we are promoting and as we work on support for quality teachers we must not be left behind because of our size…The success of our education initiative is directly linked to the quality classroom instructions for solid based skills, critical thinking, life long learning and technological literacy have become the new keys to productivity in our knowledge based societies. Those are undoubtedly serious demands placed on a quality teacher in the 21st century,” she said.
Meantime, Keynote speaker Doctor Ismay Taylor during her presentation reminded teachers that quality education embraced the vision that every child would be able to realise his or her potential through education and increased opportunities for life long and life wide learning.
She urged the teachers to see investment in education as being one of the most important determinants of welfare and opportunity but there were challenges. The big challenge that faced teachers, according to Dr Taylor, was to create and expand education opportunities to all including those who were victims of poverty, the disenchanted and the disenfranchised.
The Featured Speaker blamed the changed nature of education in the context of globalisation and the high cost of the delivery of education on mass communication, technology advanced and an open economy but it was her belief that every child in St Kitts and Nevis should have the opportunity to receive a quality education.
Dr. Taylor said that quality education for every child would require a collective approach including Parents, educators, the community, civic and political leaders, the business community and individuals all working together to accomplish this noble goal.
She said it would be a costly endeavour but the alternative to a quality education was ignorance and therefore it was important to ensure that every child had the opportunity to receive a quality education which could only be achieved if there are quality teachers ““ and that too was costly -.
Also present at the event was the Honourable Robelto Hector who was acting Premier at the time, Hon. Carlisle Powell, Mrs Christine Springate, Education Advisor and Mr Llewellyn Parris Special Advisor in the Premier’s Ministry.