 |
| Mrs Jennifer Hodge Principal Education Officer in the Nevis Island Administration |
CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (JANUARY 24, 2006) Principal Education Officer in the Nevis Island Administration Mrs Jennifer Hodge said it is imperative that educators change their modus operandi if they are to achieve success due to the critical changes taking place in the world because of technology.
Mrs Hodge made the comment while addressing staff of the St Thomas Primary School during their 35th anniversary Educational Retreat at the Mount Nevis Hotel in Newcastle on Tuesday under the theme "Achieving Success in a Continually Changing Educational Landscape".
The Retreat, one event in a week of celebratory activities, was aimed at exploring how the school's staff could continue to make a difference and also to focus on major challenges and issues impacting on education today
"As educators we must acknowledge that the one thing that really matters in our entire educations system is the child for in today's knowledge based economy, students need to have the academic skills necessary to remain on top of our educational and societal evolution.
"We have to teach children to be life long learners for gone are the days when one entered a career and remained there until he retired. Today's workers change careers ever so often hence you have to learn and relearn skills to be functional,"Mrs Hodge said.
Change, she told the participants, was something made possible only through dedicated teachers who instilled a love of learning and who turned faculty into family.
She said that although the retreat was a time for intellectual enrichment, it was the right time to focus on school improvement in raising students performance and most importantly the teacher and leader in them.
Mrs Hodge urged the teachers to resolve to create in their classrooms an atmosphere of learning and challenge and a place where their students would want to be.
 |
| A section of the participants at the Educational Retreat at the Mount Nevis Hotel |
"While I may seem to be stating the obvious, it is the teaching profession that instils teachers to enhance their professional skills, improve their classroom teaching and to spread good practise throughout the schools sector,"she said.
The Principal Education officer also took the opportunity to pay tribute to teachers present and past of the St. Thomas Primary School who she said have made a significant contribution in the life of that institution.
Education Officer attached to the School Mrs Averil Elliott, during remarks said while it was necessary to equip teachers with necessary skills and knowledge as to how to best cater to the needs of their students, it was often forgotten that teachers likewise, needed to be empowered, motivated and made aware of how to achieve success in a continually changing educational landscape.
She lauded the efforts of School Principal Ms Earlene Maynard and her staff for organising the retreat which she said had put the teachers at the forefront and recommended that such an exercise should be adopted and improved upon by every school in Nevis.
"My reason for saying this, is that often times teaching is perceived as a semi-profession when compared to other professions, simply because of the meagre emphasis that is placed on the well-being and replenishing of teacher's depleted substances and energies which are manifested on a daily basis in the form of teacher burn out, teacher frustration and the common class room stress.
"Regrettably, often times we blunder in thinking that because teachers are adults, they can easily fend for themselves and see about their own salvation. Moreover, with the advent of Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) and its varied implications, it is incumbent of us to give increased attention and greater value and currency to the greater needs of our well deserving teachers,"she said.
Meantime, the event's featured speaker Mr Ashley Farrell a former teacher and Principal Education Officer said despite the many challenges educators faced in the 21 century they must ensure that the students they produced would not replicate the deeds of the likes of former world leaders Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Papa Dock and Augusto Pinochet.
He called on the educators to create a regional and global mind and not a nationalistic one which he said would be prepared to deal with globalization and CSME; to emphasise human development not just economic.
"We must not regard children as raw material for the workforce and achieving the economic progress of our country. Education must concern itself with the development of the entire person - physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual - what we should aim to produce is a well-balanced individual who can live happily and creatively as part of society," he said adding that teachers should encourage inquiry not conformity, cultivate co-operation not competition.
Mr Farrell also urged the educators to create a learning mind instead of a acquisitive one and to seek to create a mind that is both religious and scientific.
"A student whose mind is purely rational, scientific and intellectual can be extremely cruel and devoid of love and compassion. At the other extreme, a student whose mind is only religious can be overly emotional, sentimental and superstitious.
" Our aim should therefore be to create a mind that is both scientific and religious, one that is inquiring, precise and rational but at the same time has the sense of beauty, wonder, humility and an awareness of the limitations of the intellect, Without a deep understanding of our relationship with nature, with ideas with fellow human beings, with the Creator and a deep respect for all life one is really not educated,"he said.
Principal Ms Maynard gave brief remarks, Ms Ayana Jones rendered the national anthem, Pastor Flemming delivered the invocation and Ms Clair Lake delivered the vote of thanks. Other presentations came from Education Officer Mrs Palsy Wilkin who spoke on Strategies for the Reluctant Reader while Mr Samuel Caines gave a motivational presentation.
