ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, January 18th, 2012 – Minister for Education and Culture, Honourable Myron V. Walwyn is reporting that our local education system will soon benefit from the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of the Virgin Islands and Hertfordshire County, United Kingdom (UK).
In the UK last week, Minister Walwyn met with Hertfordshire County Council education officials to exchange information and experiences in a number of areas and to explore assistance for the development of policies and training to enhance the education system in the Territory.
According to the Minister, “Education in the Virgin Islands is at a crucial point where concerns over standards, access and whether the system is truly preparing students to join the work force must be addressed.”
“At this point we either continue as we have been doing or we muster the courage to tackle our system with the objective to reform it for the benefit of all members of our community to have access to equitable education,” he said.
Minister Walwyn said the meeting was extremely helpful in exploring opportunities the Territory can realise from its partnership with Hertfordshire County.
“The areas that I specifically wanted to look at, where I believe we in the Virgin Islands can most benefit from their experience were special needs education, technical and vocational education and training, strategic education planning, school governance and educational leadership.”
Honourable Walwyn said, “At the end of the meeting I was very confident that we do have very successful and resourceful partners who can assist us in our goal to reform our education system.”
Within upcoming months the Ministry and Department of Education will be working with Hertfordshire County education officials in assessing the Territory’s education system as well as begin discussions on areas of improvement in policy, planning, school governance, and academic training.
Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Dr. Marcia Potter and Director of Culture, Mrs. Luce Hodge Smith who is on secondment to the BVI London Office accompanied the Minister.
Hertfordshire County officials attending the meeting included County Councillor, Terry Douris; Director of Education, Justin Donovan; Head of Integrated Services of Learning, Debbie Orton; Assistant Director of Standards and School Effectiveness, Gillian Cawley; Deputy Director of Service for Children and Young People,
Andrew Simmons and Assistant Director of Education Provision and Access, Simon Newland.
The Virgin Islands is twinned with Hertfordshire County in an initiative of the BVI London Office which supports the UK Government’s new policy objective to have closer relationships between the Overseas Territories (OTs) and the United Kingdom. This agreement is also used as a model for other OTs.
In June 2009, Hertfordshire County officials signed an MOU on sports cooperation between the British Virgin Islands Olympic Committee and the Hertfordshire Ready for Winners Partnership (HRFWP). On November 23, 2011, Premier and Minister for Finance Dr. the Hon. D. Orlando Smith, OBE, signed the MOU between the Government of the Virgin Islands and the Hertfordshire County Council formalising the twinning arrangement, thereby extending cooperation in a number of key areas.
The MOU provides a framework for the VI and Hertfordshire County Council to work together, using HRFWP as the training centre for VI athletes in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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