Caribbean officials look at harmonising qualifications of teachers across region

The standards of teacher qualifications across the Caribbean were discussed at a recent meeting in Barbados organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Members from the Caribbean Union of Teachers as well as senior officials from CARICOM discussed the need to ensure that lack of familiarity, information and awareness about the standard of some academic qualifications does not affect the opportunities for migrating teachers.

Dr Idamay Denny, Deputy Chief Education Officer, Barbados Ministry of Education, and Member of the Working Group on Teacher Recruitment, said that harmonising qualifications across the region with agreed levels of quality reduces discrimination against certain courses from different universities and colleges.

She said: "In the context of free movement across the region, it is critical that teachers be trained and evaluated according to standardised criteria so that countries can have the assurance that if they lose teachers on whose preparation they have expended significant sums of money, those entering their systems will meet the same standards of preparation as those they are losing.

"If our teachers are to benefit from international initiatives which require the recruitment and involvement of large numbers of teachers from across the world, then it is imperative that their qualifications can be equated with those of teachers from the more developed countries."

At the meeting, held between 7 and 9 December 2008, Dr Denny also spoke about other problems experienced in the past by teachers, such as being second class citizens without certain rights for them or their children, salary undercutting, and the lack of opportunities to advance.

"We are essentially fighting to be recognised as sovereign nations who bring something of value to the table and must therefore be respected as equal partners in the process," she said.

Decisions made at the meeting will be fed into the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers, which is being held in Malaysia in June 2009.

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• Country Profile: Barbados