PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Trinidad and Tobago is playing host this week to an Organization of American States (OAS) seminar on teacher education for the 21st century. The conference, which will be held in La Romain October 29-31, brings together early childhood education officials from the 34 OAS Member States to examine the status of the teacher training in the region.
The seminar participants will also discuss the pressing need in the region to strengthen the quality of teacher education to ensure that all teachers have the necessary competencies to provide students with a relevant education for the 21st century.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Education Minister Esther Le Gendre will open the meeting Wednesday morning. Director of the OAS Department of Education and Culture Lenore Yaffee Garcia will also take part in the inauguration, as will Catherine Pognat, representing the Inter-American Council for Integral Development’s (FEMCIDI) Special Multilateral Fund.
The seminar will focus on six main topics: recruitment and selection of future educators; Early childhood education and teacher training; Classroom work; Teacher evaluation and quality assurance; Training of teacher educators: mentor and role model; and Collaboration: public-private sector alliances.
It is the view of the OAS Department of Education and Culture that as the global economy changes and new technologies are introduced, students need to acquire critical skills so they can meet the demands of the labor market. Teachers need to be provided with appropriate training and support for developing and integrating these skills in the classroom. This effort to bring teachers up-to-date with such skills needs to start at the teacher education level with teacher educators, hence the importance of deepening knowledge and information exchange in this area.
The seminar is being convened as part of a hemispheric project “Responses to the Challenge of Improving the Quality of Recruitment and Selection, Initial Formation, Professional Development and evaluation of Teachers in Countries of the Hemisphere.” A FEMCIDI initiative, the project seeks primarily to provide support for education ministries in OAS member states as they create and/or strengthen and implement policies to boltster teacher training capacity and quality education for teachers in general.
