Georgetown, Guyana (CMC) — The transformation of the region’s education system is the major area of focus for ministers of education from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) as they attended a two-day meeting of the Caricom Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD).
At the two-day meeting that started here on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education in St Kitts Nevis, Shawn Richards, stressed the inadequacy of incremental changes to the system to meet the needs of “radically changed” students in the digital age.
“The imperative therefore, is for systemic reform in areas such as teacher preparation and continued professional development in leadership training and several other technical areas,” he said.
He said an important component of the reform process is that of “the architecture and governance of education systems and not merely the content of education”.
The COHSOD meeting, under the theme “Safeguarding our Region’s Future: Reshaping Education for the 21st century, will present recommendations to the Caricom commission on Human Resource Development 2030 Strategy.
Assistant secretary-general, human and social development at the Caricom Secretariat, Dr Douglas Slater said the meeting will “provide an opportunity to exchange ideas and recommend policy directions for education at all levels and in particular, for achieving the levels of innovation required for competitiveness”.