Guyana likely to provide training for Caribbean teachers

Three years after the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) started online training for teachers in Guyana, the programme is in discussion to be shared with other Caribbean countries. This was revealed by Education Minister Priya Manickchand during a review of the education sector for 2024.

She disclosed having discussions with Grenada and Barbados, among others, about extending the online programme for teachers in those countries.

“Our teacher training story has been a really remarkable successful story for us in here in Guyana and I am happy to tell you we have been approached by at least two Caribbean countries who have asked about how their teachers, much smaller in numbers than ours, could benefit from this online training,” Manickchand revealed.

Adding: “That is something we are currently exploring with them.”

Highlighting the success of online learning for Guyanese, Minister Manickchand was optimistic about training teachers from other countries.

“It is an online programme so we would have to work how teaching practice is done in those countries if we were to use this. So, 29,000 Guyanese are studying online in other universities, so it works, online can work,” the education minister said.

Meanwhile, between 2020 and 2024, some 4,738 teachers in Guyana have been trained. This is a result of expanding training programmes so more teachers can access without leaving their homes.

“We also asked the University of Guyana to take their programme online, by their programme I mean their degree programme and so there is no need for teachers to ask for leave to exit. Before all the teachers would know that only two or three of them could go to UG at any given point,” Manickchand said.

But now, there are no limits. Entire schools can pursue their education degrees simultaneously without interfering with their teaching hours because of online learning.