As part of the Ministry of Education’s ongoing thrust to use ICT to aid curriculum delivery in the Education System, a third cohort of three hundred and twenty-five (325) teachers graduated as Information Communication Technology (ICT) Professionals on Wednesday 23rd January, 2019. This ICT Teacher Professional Development Programme has so far trained over fourteen hundred (1,400) secondary school teachers over the last two years.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony at Naparima College in San Fernando, Chief Education Officer (Acting) John Roopchan spoke of the benefits for teachers of using technology in schools.“The use of ICT in the classroom promotes the learning by doing approach, it enables self-paced learning, it provides access to a wide range of up to date learning materials, it enriches learning through a combination of audio, video, images, text and animations and enhances through interaction and collaboration. ICT also enables teachers to do administrative tasks more efficiently.”
According to Mr Roopchan, technology also gives educators the opportunity to transform the way learning happens, and enable student development. “It allows for a range of tools such as Distance Learning that teachers or lecturers can use to present and display as part of their teaching and it helps educators interact with students as well as engage them in a more meaningful way. ICT in the Education System helps to make the art of teaching more progressive in keeping with modern 21st Century teaching requirements.”
This ICT Teacher Professional Development Programme forms part of the Ministry of Education’s 5- Star ICT plan. It targets teachers from selected schools and is a logical follow through to all other components of the ICT Plan in getting teachers to do things differently utilizing technology. More critically, with E-testing by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) expected to be in full effect by 2021, teachers would have been given a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of electronic assessment including various online tools and applications.