Considering the need for better access and accommodation for teachers to train in Region Three, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Friday commissioned a new building of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara.
The new facility is now housed at the Ministry of Education’s Divisional Centre and will cater to the needs of some 300 teachers. Prior to this centre, the programme was facilitated at Vreed-en-Hoop Primary School.
This new facility is also a response to the Ministry’s call for all teachers to be enrolled at the college and become 100 per cent trained.
Giving the feature address at the ceremony, Manickchand said teachers are important and valuable assets to any nation; therefore the training they receive must be of the best possible.
“For me, teaching is the noblest profession you can find. And it’s the most important profession. It sounds cliché but it is the profession where you could either make people or break people. You could either change the trajectory of families and their acquisitions of wealth or you could keep them in poverty,” she said.
Manickchand also encouraged the teachers who will benefit from the facility to make great use of the opportunities available. The Minister also told the teachers that they must want to be in the classroom and teach the children of the nation when they register for these programmes otherwise they are doing a disservice to themselves and the classrooms they enter.
She said the government understands the need to have fully functioning facilities for teachers to learn in order to provide the best services in the classrooms. “We’re giving you a place to come and be the best you can to try learning and making yourself develop. We’re trying to make sure you get the best quality education.”
In addition, Manickchand said there will be greater emphasis on the quality of learning offered at CPCE. She said the College will undergo massive changes to hold teachers and lecturers accountable. This is a change that may or may not be welcomed with open arms but it is a move that the Ministry has to proceed with in order to raise the quality of service offered at CPCE, the Minister explained.
The Regional Chairman, Sheik Ayube, was also in attendance and he advised that the teachers challenge themselves to improve the lives of each student they teach.
Principal of the college, Noella Joseph said the ministry’s efforts to reach all teachers has been greatly achieved although the COVID-19 pandemic caused setbacks.
The College has expanded massively with the hybrid format taken during the pandemic. The decision to take programmes online increased the number of enrollments seen at the college.
