East Zone teachers hold Professional Development Day

BASSETERRE ST. KITTS (February 22, 2009) -- Teachers from four public primary schools in the East Zone (St. Kitts) Friday attended the annual Professional Development Day held at the Ocean Terrace Inn, Basseterre, where they participated in three sessions: time management, Social Security benefits, and financial opportunities offered by the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis.
 
Coordinator of the Professional Development Day, Joycelyn Mitcham, who is also the head teacher at Molineux Primary School, pointed out that the day has been observed for a number of years, and teachers attending always benefit professionally. This year the day was held under the theme, ‘Building Bridges: Securing the Social Welfare for Educators’.
 
“As educators and by extension teachers, we have to take into consideration what is currently happening in the world and the impact that it will have on our lives,” observed Mitcham, as she explained the reason they chose to have the three sessions. “Today is a stepping stone in that direction to give us some kind of knowledge and some tips to deal with the current situation which the world is facing today.”
 
Primary schools that attended were Molineux, Violet Petty, Dieppe Bay and Cayon. Absent this year were Edgar T Morris, Estridge and Saddlers.
 
Two sessions were held in the morning, with Terry Morris from the Ministry of Social Development and who is the Community Development Officer for the area from Keys to Parsons conducting the session on Time Management. The second session was ‘Benefits from Social Security’ conducted by Kamilah Lawrence and Mr. Walwyn Shiverton.
 
In the afternoon session, Development Bank of Saint Kitts and Nevis’ Delinquency and Recoveries manager David Fox conducted an interactive session where after he read the bank’s mission statement told the teachers: “If you listen to the last part of that mission statement you are going to find the areas that the bank has been thinking about you.”
 
The bank’s mission statement is: To be a viable financial institution which promotes economic growth and development by providing financial and advisory services to viable ventures and programmes in business, industry, agriculture, education and housing.
 
“If that is our mission statement, it means that the things that we do on a daily basis should be heading towards that,” noted Fox. “We should be looking towards making sure that people are able to access advisory service, they able to get into ventures and programmes in business, agriculture, industry, education and also housing.”  
 
For housing, Fox told the educators that the bank would give loans up to five times their annual salary. He advised that if they have their plans drawn and are ready to proceed, that they would get a sizeable reduction in cost if they have the whole process done through the National Housing Corporation.
 
“We provide loans for persons who want to get tertiary education and if you want to go beyond that and want to go for post graduate studies as well,” commented the bank official who was last December named the bank’s Manager of the Year.
 
He explained that the rates of interest on student loans range from five to nine percent depending on the source of the funds. In addition to student loans, the bank also provides loans for persons who wish to empower themselves.
 
“If there is a specific training course that you want to get into, it may not be a bachelors or masters degree course, but as long as there is something that you want to get into which could help you to empower yourself, we assist you by providing you with loan,” explained Fox.   
 
If an educator wishes to retire and move onto a new venture, “we can listen to what you want to do, the project, and we can provide with technical advice that would help you to know the environment and understand what you are getting into and look into some of the pitfalls you are likely to run into and so that you could know how to avoid such pitfalls and that your project could blossom.”
 
During the opening session, which was attended by officials from the Ministry of Education, the Chief Education Officer Mr. Patrick Welcome gave brief remarks.. Others in attendance were Clarice Cotton, education officer responsible for the Dieppe Bay Primary School, and Mr. Nathan Esdaille who is the education officer for the remaining three schools. The session was chaired by the guidance counsellor for some of the schools that were involved in Friday’s sessions, Esther Warner.