Tertiary level education will be a key focus of Education Month 2015 which runs from October 1 to November 4.
Acting Chief Education Officer Karen Best announced this week that post-secondary institutions have had “some involvement” in Education Month in previous years and the Ministry wanted to highlight the role that they have played, the Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS) stated in a release.
Acting Chief Education Officer Karen Best.
“We are hoping that during the month of October the spotlight would be on all the positive aspects of what we are doing in education,” Best said at a press conference at the Elsie Payne Complex where she outlined the events of the Month, which is organised by the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation.
Meanwhile, Director of the Higher Education Development Unit (HEDU) Dr Patrick Rowe contended that the Barbados Community College (BCC), Erdiston Teachers’ Training College and Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP) needed to be highlighted for “some of the things that they are doing that are fairly innovative and responding to the needs of the private sector,” the BGIS release stated.
“BCC this year has launched a new bachelor’s programme in nursing and pharmacy and these are two programmes that responded to changes at both a regional and international level. SJPP is really leading the region, partnering with a Canadian institution and has started training in photovoltaic, and planning to move that training to a level three in terms of National Vocational Qualification levels next year.
“Erdiston is in the process of also developing new programmes and upgrading programmes with the help of external consultants, and I think that in the next two to three years, the tertiary sector in the post-secondary institution would respond very favourably to the needs of Barbados and the region,” Dr Rowe was quoted as saying.
He suggested that almost $12 million from the Skills For The Future Programme would be allocated to innovative projects that are responding to manufacturing and special skills needed across industry in Barbados.
Among the several activities scheduled with tertiary level institutions in mind are a heritage walk on October 11 and a bus ride on October 18; the EduNation Forum at the Queen’s Park Steel Shed on October 20; a T20 cricket match between personnel from the Ministry and tertiary institutions on October 30; and an Edumarket/Q in the Community session at the Old Bartel Sports Complex on October 31.
The theme for Education Month is: Transforming Education: Imagine, Explore, Create. (BGIS)