Caribbean Teachers WARNED: Change -- or Become Classroom Fossils!
Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony, as CARICOM Chairman, told Caribbean teachers they needed to change fast – or be left behind by time and progress.
Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony addressed Caribbean teachers recently -- in his capacity as CARICOM Chairman, as well as a former Teacher and President of the St. Lucia Teachers Union – during which he warned them to change -- or become fossilized. Addressing the Caribbean’s teachers unions at the 5th Regional Education Conference of the Caribbean Union of teachers (CUT) in Grenada, Dr Anthony told his audience, “For us to appreciate the challenge of the teaching profession, we must consider the following trends: Education is becoming more globally competitive; Education is becoming part of the knowledge-based economy; Education is becoming more values driven; and Education is becoming more dependent on technology as a platform for teaching and learning.” Addressing the factor of global competition in education, he said, “Worldwide, we observe that education is increasingly being seen more as an industry. Whether this is concluded to be positive or adverse, Government, as one of the principal service providers of education, should ideally be concerned BusinessFocus May/June
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by the performance and outputs of this sector in a competitive global market. “However, the basic education for the local market is certainly nearly monopolistic, mainly owned, managed and directed by Government. Very few nongovernmental providers exist.” Encouraging the region’s teachers to become more versatile, Dr Anthony said, “One of the first qualities we might wish espoused in teachers of the future and the competitive learning environments they will coordinate is versatility; particularly the ability to apply their skills differentially. Teachers will have to be able to teach to suit, adapting to varied classrooms and even varied courses of study by individual students within the same classroom.” But, he added, there were factors of teacher mobility that should also concern the region’s education planners. According to the St. Lucia PM, “The presence of versatile, adaptable teachers and the rising global market also presents a risk for the Caribbean through teacher migration. “We know very well that many Caribbean islands have benefited, for instance, from the migration of many skilled teachers from Guyana. The same can also be said of North America, which has been a sink for many skilled Caribbean teachers. “The movement towards regional certification of teachers is in some way a response to this need for teacher mobility.” He warned, however, that If we are to speak of the future of the teaching profession, we must observe the trends that are impacting education both within our region and globally in a scientific way. “And while, of course, it is often suggested that reforms in an education sector should be gradual and incremental, all across the Caribbean, the rate of reform has invariably been close to a snail’s pace.”
Dr Anthony warned too that “If the Caribbean does not make radical, calculated shifts in the quality of its human resource capacity through education and knowledge systems, the region would continue to languish behind the rest of the world, and remain uncompetitive.” The St. Lucia PM advised that “The role of the teachers’ organisation needs to be seen as more transformational and less territorial. Unions should, beyond the usual interests of emoluments, have a vested interest in healthy self-criticism and analysis of their own members’ performance. “The teaching profession must therefore prove that it can assess itself and promote value propositions to the rest of the sector.” Looking ahead, Dr Anthony told the region’s teachers, “The teacher of the future, would certainly have to remain always relevant, in a world where technology reverts knowledge to be passé at an ever faster rate. “If more deliberate efforts are not made to make use of existing technology, the use of the existing teaching profession in the Caribbean risks being fossilised. “The chalkboard is being replaced by the interactive whiteboard, the library with the worldwide web, and the textbook with the tablet. And if you’re thinking of the tablet as something Moses came down from Sinai with, then perhaps you already face extinction.” He continued, “This is what you face as teachers: remaining relevant in light of the paradigm shifts that will be necessary to change our learning environments – and, by extension, the outputs of our schools.” The teacher of the future, he said, “must affirm a number of qualities and aptitudes.” He continued, “The teacher must be well trained and qualified, versatile and able to teach in a variety of environments, and certainly to be able to be creative under the low resource constraints that