Wednesday, February 11– The Ministry and Department of Education will host grade and department level meetings for principals and teachers of all public primary and secondary schools in the Territory on Thursday, February 12.

The 9:00 a.m. meetings for the primary and secondary schools will be held at the Althea Scatliffe Primary School and the Elmore Stoutt High School respectively.

Minister for Education and Culture the Honourable Andrew Fahie told the Department of Information and Public Relations this is the first time that they will be hosting the department level meeting with secondary schools. He expects the meetings to help encourage teamwork and discussions among teachers.  “These meetings will encourage regular formalised discussions among teachers of all the public secondary schools to help them in the planning process and ensure a more seamless transfer of students from one school to another,” the Minister said.

He added, “Teachers can work with each other to come up with schemes of work for teaching periods, share ideas on teaching techniques and assessment strategies and thus, learn from each other. “

The Minister said private schools have also been invited to attend and participate in these meetings.

This initiative which began with the launching of grade level meetings in the public primary schools in September 2008 aims to achieve parallelism in curriculum implementation in all government primary and secondary schools across the Territory.

The meetings will assist in ensuring that all government  primary and secondary school teachers, in each grade level, are working together at approximately the same level, with flexibility where necessary; strengthening the instructional planning process in the schools through regular meetings of grade levels; strengthening teachers’ planning skills; and improving the capacity of teachers to understand the scope and sequence of skills and concepts to be taught.

The Department of Education is reminding all parents and guardians that due to the scheduled meetings there will be no school for primary and secondary students on February 12 and on Friday, February 13 which is mid-term break.

The mission of the Ministry of Education and Culture is to provide high quality education and rehabilitative services, as well as, to facilitate access to and participation in sports, recreation and culture, in order to enrich the lives of all residents of the Virgin Islands.