J’can teachers praised by Canadian counterparts
TWO Canadian teachers who recently visited Jamaica have expressed admiration at the work of their Jamaican counterparts.
Professors Gail Hunter and Lyn Wilson, both early childhood education teachers at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada, took 13 students to Jamaica last month as part of their teaching practice and field experience.
In providing an update on the visit at the annual fund-raising event of Women for PACE (Canada), Professor Hunter said she was impressed with how Jamaican teachers worked with their young charges.
The group stayed mostly in the Negril area and worked at the West End Basic School and the Sangster’s Child Care Centre. “Our students worked daily with the teachers and took over some of the classes,” Professor Hunter said.
The two professors also conducted workshops on pre-math and literacy, which 125 teachers from western Jamaica attended.
In the meanwhile, the Canadian college professors want to extend the relationship with Jamaica and are planning to return to the island for 10 days at the end of June. At that time they will be in Kingston where they hope to establish partnerships with the Ministry of Education and JAMAL.
Noting that they received invaluable information on Jamaica and the school system prior to visiting the island, the teachers thanked Women for PACE for facilitating their visit.
Women for PACE (Project for the Advancement of Childhood Education) is a 15 year-old organisation formed to “support community efforts to provide a learning environment for young children”.
Members have adopted approximately 100 basic schools in Jamaica, providing educational toys, books and learning materials to the schools. The organisation also provides bursaries in Canada and Jamaica to assist early childhood student-teachers.
Diana Burke, a member of the organisation, told JIS News that PACE disbursed 60 boxes of educational materials to Jamaica last December following the successful staging of the group’s annual Christmas toy/book drive.
This year the group hopes to start a mobile computer laboratory programme for basic schools in the rural areas of Jamaica.
Meanwhile, newly appointed consul-general to Toronto, Vivia Betton commended Women for PACE for their contribution to Jamaica’s early childhood sector and assured them that the sector has been given high priority by the government.
“We in Jamaica still recognise education as the main foundation for development of our people. I wish to assure you that the early childhood sector is receiving priority attention from government and received the second highest allotment in this year’s budget,” she said.