Minister Carty outlines Government’s Role in Education
(ZIZ News) — The Government’s commitment to education was evident on Sunday when Minister of Education, the Hon. Nigel Carty, delivered remarks at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College’s [CFBC] annual graduation ceremony.
The Minister outlined the government’s role in developing St. Kitts and Nevis’ human resource.
He also stated the significant role of the recently launched Recognising Everyone’s Ability to Climb Higher [REACH] Programme. It was noted that, to date, more than 700 persons have benefitted from the initiative.
Mr. Carty said, however, that public-private partnerships are necessary to advance learning as the entire nation benefits from having an educated population.
“The St. Kitts and Nevis National Education Foundation was therefore launched in October, in fact October 11th of this year and it collaborates with partners, donors and other funding agencies to provide equal opportunities through grants to enable deserving and disadvantaged students to access quality public education,” he said.
Another new initiative that the government has taken in recent months is the provision of laptop computers to teachers.
“Last week again, the Ministry of Education demonstrated the value placed on education and teacher training by providing 52 teachers in training in the Division of Teacher Education with laptop computers. This gesture was to assist in the integration of Information and Communication Technologies into teaching and learning. Our teachers will be engaged in not just dispensing information to our students but they will be creating knowledge and sharing such knowledge locally, regionally and internationally with their peers,” he added.
The Education Minister then revealed that six scholarships, four of which are new, have been provided to top scholars in the Federation.
“The ongoing National Scholarship Programme provides six scholarships to assist our outstanding tertiary students in the pursuit of higher education. The programme is consistent with the government’s philosophy of empowerment of our nationals through the vehicle of education,” Minister Carty explained adding that “The State Scholarship which has been around for very many years, was a programme of scholarship that supplied scholarships to just two of our nationals but just recently, we had the addition of four scholarships and so, we have the TVET Scholarship to be awarded to be awarded to the most outstanding student in the technical division of the college, the Runner-Up State Scholarship, the Runner-Up TVET Scholarship, the Teacher Education Scholarship to be awarded to the most outstanding student from the Division of Teacher Education at this college and finally, the Health Sciences Scholarship to be awarded to the most outstanding student in the Division of Health Sciences or Nursing Programme here at the CFBC.”