NCERD News

VSOs return home (new!)

All Modules now online (new!)

Module 9 now available (new!)

Module 7 now available (new!)

Module 8 now available (new!)

Module 6 now available

How are you doing?

Region 3 Award Ceremony for Management Trainees

Ministry of Education holds consultations on aspects of secondary education

Welcome to new trainees

Implementation of Early Grade Readers

Georgetown Graduation at Queens College

EMS Graduation Speech

Region 7 Graduation held in Bartica

Interview with Mrs Florence Sukhdeo

Early Childhood Education Specialist NCERD

Just scroll down for more!

After two years in Guyana, Stephen Harding (Education Management Specialist), his wife Mary (Literacy Specialist) and Meg Caton (SEN Specialist) are returning home on 13th February 2009. This is what was said about them in the Guyana Chronicle PepperPot.....

VSO trio head home Saturday

taking with them bittersweet memories

By Vanessa Narine

“We just booked our tickets, but we will be taking Guyana home in our hearts.”

These were the words of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) volunteers Ms Meg Caton, Mr. Stephen Harding, and his wife Ms. Mary Harding; three individuals who, after meeting for the first time two years ago, have found fulfillment, fun and friends for life, as they served as volunteers based at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).The three, who supported the Education Sector here with their various talents, are bound for the United Kingdom (UK) and will be leaving next Saturday as they set off to reunite with family, and experience new things.“I am going home to two grandchildren expected over the next few weeks,” Meg Caton said, bitter-sweet emotions emanating from her words.She described her experience here as everything from exciting, rewarding and amazing to challenging and new.

Working with Mary Harding in Curriculum Development, Meg conveyed the feeling of satisfaction that came from visiting schools all across Guyana and seeing children being happy to read.

“Seeing them use the materials we helped develop, and the joy they got from reading was extremely rewarding,” she said.However, besides the rewards of her professional stint in Guyana, Meg said she was delighted at being a part of the Guyanese culture, and the many major events that occurred during her stay here.Mary Harding echoed Meg’s sentiments, and singled out World Cup Cricket, the Caribbean Festival of the Creative Arts (CARIFESTA), plays at the Theatre Guild Playhouse and the National Cultural Centre; the celebration of Mashramani, Diwali, Phagwah and Christmas as being among the most enjoyable moments she’d had over the years.“The togetherness of the Guyanese people during these events, and the integration of everyone, regardless of religion, into the other’s celebrations exemplifies the country’s motto: ‘One People, One Nation, One Destiny’,” Mary declared, excitement at the memory evident in her voice.She went on to say that not only did this spirit exist during playtime, but also during the course of work as working at NCERD involved teamwork as well as team spirit.“Working with curriculum development at NCERD was working as part of a team that was focused on improving literacy, and improving individual skills in Guyana in a mass literacy countrywide programme, the Fast Track Initiative (FTI), which targeted head teachers, practicing teachers and educators,” Mary said.Mary also said that apart from the oneness one felt, life here was very different from that of life in London, particularly the lifestyles of persons in the outlying areas of Guyana.Mary’s husband, Stephen, who worked in Education Management, echoed her sentiments, but added that while they had come with no idea of what to expect, they were, nevertheless, stunned.“The differences are countless, but one thing I appreciate very much is that Sundays in Guyana remains a day of rest.

The traffic lights blink amber throughout the day; Guyanese take time to go to their religious bodies; and Sundays are distinctly different,” Stephen said, seemingly lost contemplating the differences.His colleague, Meg, also recalled her many Sundays in Guyana, saying that in London, Sundays were just normal days.“Persons should try not to change Sundays, since it is a special time that some take for granted,” Meg said.Stephen continued his reminiscence as he pointed to one moment in several “special times” he experienced and said in all his years of work, never did he have a view of the ocean as he did while working with NCERD.“I had the perfect view of the Atlantic Ocean, and we could always tell before anyone when the rains were coming,” he recalled laughingly.Another special moment for him was the completion of a programme he wrote to assist in the training of School Managers, the Education Management Certificate Course, a programme that has seen over 350 graduates countrywide since its initiation.“There is a genuine thirst for knowledge in Guyana; people want to learn, especially now that the programme has activities to stimulate persons during the lectures,” Stephen said.

He said that since the fourth batch of school managers completed the 18-month course, over 600 individuals have expressed their interest in the programme, which it is hoped will continue as part of NCERD’s commitment to training.“The programme, which was developed in 1990 for schools in Africa, was now completely fitted to Guyana and its environment,” Stephen said proudly. “We have achieved far more than we had expected, and it is very satisfying.”The three agreed that while the two years they spent here simply “flew by,” the satisfaction they gained was well beyond their expectations, not just work-wise, but in other respects as well, particularly the Guyanese cuisine and of course Guyana’s tourist attractions.

“The best trips we had were our visits to the Kaieteur Falls and Shell Beach,” Mary said.Smiling, her husband, Stephen, recalled the occasion.

“Everything that could have gone wrong on the trip to Shell Beach went wrong, but we were laughing the entire time,” he said.Smiling too, Mary’s memories traced back to the trip, as she reminded her husband of the boat breaking down in the middle of nowhere but added that the experience was worth so much.“As much as we gave in our years as volunteers, we got back two-fold in so many other ways,” Meg said.So, leaving with the many experiences and fond memories gained while selflessly giving of themselves to serve other humans, in a strange land whose culture was alien to them, Meg, Mary and Stephen have exemplified the view that serving others brings its own rewards.Director of NCERD, Mr Mohandatt Goolsarran, gave the VSO volunteers another reward, in that he expressed his gratitude for their selfless support over the years.“They were very adaptable and produced quality work, while they became integrated within the system, providing professional skills and motivating teachers to strive for greater heights,” he said.

All Modules now complete and online

We've all been waiting for it and now it's happened. All Education Management Programme Modules are now online in text and PDF versions. Just go to the side bar on the right to view or download them.

Module 5 was the last to complete and it can now be viewed with all the others on http://www.ncerdleaders.com/.

This is a first for NCERD to have all of the materials for a distance learning programme online for all to see.

Module 9 School Records and Documents

We are pleased to announce that the Supplementary Module 9 based on the guidelines School Records and Documents is now available online. Just go to the side bar on the right to find it.

Although we have made it clear in the last eight modules that the most important aspect of a headteacher’s function is the leadership role, we cannot deny that there is also a need for a certain amount of administration to make sure that schools function smoothly and that appropriate records are kept for those who need them.

This module is a supplementary one and does not form part of the main programme. It is based on the Ministry of Education’s document “School Records and Documents” which has been updated regularly to meet current needs. It is the Ministry’s guidelines for all administrative activity for schools in Guyana. It is an extremely comprehensive guide produced by a large number of persons who wrote it and were part of the consultation process. It gives clear instructions to headteachers on how they should operate in respect of their administrative duties.

Whilst we accept that such administrative tasks are essential in keeping the wheels of the school moving smoothly, we must remember, however, that these tasks are not a means to a successful school in themselves. They assist the headteacher in keeping appropriate records to support him /her to fulfil his / her role as a leader. Alone they will not raise achievement. This is done by coaching, motivating and supporting school staff. School records should be completed, therefore, as far as possible outside of the school day and should not be used as an excuse to avoid working in those areas which will make a real difference to pupil achievement.

The primary purpose of the guidelines is to provide information to school practitioners in an attempt to enhance their competence and confidence. When the guidelines are adhered to, the system of accountability would be greatly improved.

The format of this module is different from that of the previous ones in that each unit will have a short introduction, after which you will be expected to read the appropriate sections of the guidelines. On completion of your reading, you will find a number of reflections and activities which we hope you will complete. We have provided you with a page reference from the guidelines to assist you in this process. The answers to the activities should be recorded in your portfolio in the normal way.

Almost there

After 3 batches of the Education Management Programme, NCERD is proud to report that we have almost completed the complete task of the revision of the EMC Modules. Only one remains - module 5 School Finance. It has been completed and is currently with the technical advisor who is checking it over for accuracy. You can expect to see it on the website in the next week or so.

The modules are now completely Guyanese and no longer contain any reference to Africa. This will assist trainees considerably in ensuring that their understanding of the education system is current.

This will complete the tasks of the Education Management Specialist and VSO Stephen Harding from Great Britain who has been in Guyana for two years in NCERD and will be returning home on 13th February 2009.

Watch this space!

Module 7 The Management of Schools now available and online

We are pleased to report that you can now access Module 7 The Management of Schools both in text and PDF format online from this website. Just go to the sidebar on the right to find the links to download it or read it.

Introduction
The purpose of this module is to enable heads to gain an understanding and insight into the nature and dimensions of school management, and thus help them work effectively with the various groups and bodies which have a part to play in the good management of each school.

Let us first of all remind ourselves of the distinction between leadership, management and administration. A good head would be capable of all three and particularly his / her key role as a leader. We will deal with this in much greater detail in Module 8 “The Leadership of Schools”. In simple terms, the leader creates the vision and engages the staff to fulfil that vision. The manager creates order and structure to oversee and undertake the process and the various stages required to achieve the task. The administrator deals with the day-to-day issues that are required for the whole process to run smoothly, meet the requirements of the law and achieve the desired results. In short, what will be done, how it will be done and the doing!

In this Module, we will examine the process of management. There are many people and organisations involved in the management of a school and they all have their part to play. We will not only examine the role of headteacher in this but also look at the responsibilities of other outside stakeholders such as the parents, the children, the regional departments of education, the community and the central ministry.

Module 8 now available

We are pleased to report that Module 8 Leadership in Schools is now available on this website in both text and PDF formats (Portable Display Format). Just go to the side bar on the right to find a link to see the module or down load it.

The module is a complete re-write of the original one and should be much clearer for trainees to follow. The following is a summary of the new module for your information:

Module Eight
The Leadership of Schools

Understanding leadership in schools
In this unit, we looked at the main reasons why we have schools in Guyana in order to focus on the role of the leader and the concept of leadership and, in particular, the type of action that is associated with a good leader. We concentrated on the differences between administration, management and leadership and concluded that, although all have their place, leadership is the most important role and is essential to the development of efficient and successful schools. We examined the characteristics of effective leaders.

We looked particularly at the diverse approaches of the reactive and the proactive headteacher and concluded that it is essential for heads to be proactive in all that they do rather than simply waiting for the specific instructions of others. And finally, we brought to your attention the need for leaders to model how to follow and highlighted the main hallmarks of effective followers.

The principles of educational leadership
Whereas in Unit One we looked at leadership in relationship to schools, in this unit we examined more closely the general skills which are required to be an effective leader and related them to your own practice in school. In some cases we gave you examples of what you could do in school to become accomplished in the desired skills. We added to the work of an earlier module by considering the effectiveness of a variety of styles and, at various points in the unit, asked you to start evaluating your own leadership performance.

Leadership in Guyana’s schools
In this unit we have moved the focus to the needs of the Guyanese educational system, from the theory to its application in schools. We required you to understand the essential characteristics that Guyana wants to develop in its leaders and to put some of this into practice by analysing your own performance in these areas.

We identified a number of groups, whose responsibility it is to develop the future leaders of Guyana. These range from yourself as a potential leader (or perhaps you already are one) through each of the various levels in the school though to those externally responsible for schools in the regions and the Ministry of Education. In each case we related these requirements to the imperative to create effective and successful schools.

Leading in your new school
In this unit we asked you to use your imagination and consider the implications for you of a new leadership post. You were exposed to the various emotions and thoughts that you might have before taking up the post. We looked at the effects that your appointment may have on others and their reaction to you and how you might ease for them the transition from one manager to another. Our aim was to help you to feel more confident about being a middle leader, member of a senior leadership team or headteacher.

We looked at some practical issues such as developing strategies for getting to know and understand your staff and how to make an impact in the first few weeks without making persons feel threatened by any changes you may wish to make. Finally we discussed the way you might use your own experience to date and that of other staff to your best advantage.

Developing leadership in others
Leadership training is now commonly seen as a key feature in the agenda to raise achievement in schools and to improve their effectiveness. We believe, therefore, that it cannot be left to chance or delivered in an ad hoc way. It is important that you are able to appreciate what is meant by leadership professional development and why it is essential to develop people in leadership. As a result of this, you need to understand the process of providing professional development and be able to describe the various forms that leadership professional development may take both for individuals and groups of people in order that you will be able to put them into practice.

However, we are aware that such training in Guyana has its challenges especially in the light of decreasing resources and resource persons. We provided for you strategies to try to overcome this in a positive way. Each type of leader deserves a tailor-made programme to meet its needs. In this unit, we outlined for you the specific leadership training focus of each group and assisted you in evaluating those skills in order that good decisions will be made about future leaders.

Finally, we all need to plan for a time when our leaders will move on to other things. Succession planning is a way of preparing for this and we linked this concept to all of the other training processes already outlined.

Identifying leadership characteristics
This unit was quite different from many others in that it not only assisted you in understanding the basic competencies of a headteacher but also showed you how to evaluate those competencies in a way which would be meaningful and useful for you. If you completed the exercise, you now be in possession of a document which shows clearly your strengths and weaknesses as a leader according to the perceptions both of yourself and others who you manage or are managed by.

Your own leadership growth plan
After working through the competency evaluation of the last unit, it was essential that the information gained was used to inform further development of your leadership skills. To this end, you should now have a better understanding of the variety of methods of receiving feedback about your leadership competencies that are available to you and recognise the sources on hand for feedback about your performance.

We encouraged you to create your own leadership growth plan and use examples of leadership growth plans for middle and senior leaders to improve your own one. Finally, we encouraged the use of and described a leadership portfolio which would store your background and professional information as well as successful examples of your leadership activities and your reflections on them.

Go forward and lead
Having reached the end of the main modules of the Education Management Programme, this module will pull together all you have learnt to allow you to apply this knowledge and skills in a real life situation.

Education Management Programme Summary

It may be that you are considering studying this programme in the future or you have already started and would like to put the module you are studying in the context of the whole course. If either of these are the case or for some other reason you would like to jhave details about the whole course, just click on the link below to look at the summary page.

Education Management Programme Summary Modules 1 - 8

Shortage of modules

This year the Education Management Programme has been so popular that far more trainees have enrolled than expected and in some areas there are insufficient modules to go round. There are a number of things you can do until they are reprinted.

• You are at liberty to photocopy them from a fellow trainee as you wish.


• You can read them in text format from this website and print them off.


• You can download them in PDF (Portable Display Format) from this website. Just go to the side bar on the right and click on the links. If you have a slow connection, it may take a while, so be patient. You can then either save them on your computer and read them from there or you can print them off.


• If you have any difficulty with the download or you are perhaps using a computer in a limited time frame, you can email us at NCERD, giving us full details of your Name, School, Region and Master Trainer and we will email the first few modules to you in PDF format. Again, be aware that they are large files and may take a time to load when you receive them by email. Go to the contact us page on the sidebar on the right.


• You can call into NCERD and we will copy the files onto a disk or your flash drive.

We are sorry if you have experienced any difficulties and expect that all modules will be available on this site by the end of January and available in print soon after.

Thanks for your patience.

How are you doing?

Allow jour leadership skills and knowledge to develop

just like the growing tree

By now, you should have completed Module One if you are a trainee on the Education Management Programme. Hopefully you will have handed in two assignments and will have good grades. Your assignments were due on 12th December and your portfolio on 31st December. It may be that you will have a little longer if you started late.

You will soon be starting Module 2 if you have not already done so. This deals with the Principles of Education Management.

The task of running a school requires imagination and common sense. But there are also certain principles of management which can provide useful guidance for the practising school head, and a number of these are examined in this module. The principles covered here include: aspects of human and public relations, communications, delegation, decision making and problem solving. We hope that the module will encourage you to reflect on your own performance and consider ways in which you might improve your own school management processes to become more effective in your role as school head and as a manager of change.

After working through this module you should be able to:

• discuss the contribution which management theory can make to under­standing management practice


• relate your responsibilities and duties as a school head to the functions of the Guyana


• Government and its Ministries and especially the Ministry of Education


• differentiate between the main functions of the head of a school and identify some of the tasks associated with each


• understand the importance of good human relations and communica­tions in promoting a suitable working environment for teachers, pupils and non‑teaching staff in a school


• outline the importance of delegation and outline the key principles and procedures involved in delegation in schools


• explain decision making and problem solving and list the major factors which contribute towards effective practice


• describe the nature of the change process and identify the key manage­ment functions and tasks associated with the effective management of school

We hope that you are not finding the work too onerous or too difficult and that what you have read so far is helping you in your current post. The first modules are more theoretical than the rest and the programme becomes much more practical as you go along.

We encourage you to keep working at it and are confident, from the many comments of graduates of the programme, that you will find it beneficial in your work and a great step to higher things.

Module Six Monitoring School Effectiveness

If you are studying the programme, this module will be a long way off but it is now available for you to look at. If you are just casually looking at the site, you will find this module useful for monitoring and evaluating your school's performance.

The PDF version will be available soon and you will find both on the sidebar on the right. Just click on the link.

The next module to become available will be Module 8 - Leadership in Schools. You should have this within the next week. We realise that these are being published out of order but we are trying to get them to you as soon as they become available. We are confident that all of the modules will have been published on the site by the end of march both in text and PDF formats.

Happy reading!

Seasons Greetings from NCERD

to all our readers

and

Wishing you a happy and successful New Year

Region 3 Awards Ceremony for Management Trainees

The Graduates

On Thursday 4th December, 18 trainees met with their families, friends, wellwishers and colleagues at the West Demerara Secondary School for the last of the graduations for the 2006 -2008 batch of Education Management Programme Trainees.

The following officiated at the ceremony:

Welcome - Ms Myrtle Caldeira - Master Trainer

Chairman - Mr Patrick John

Opening Remarks - Ms Marlyn Jones-O'Donogue - Regional Education Officer (ag)

Overview of course - Mr Stephen Harding - Education Management Specialist

Guest Speaker - Ms Donna Chapman - DCEO (D)

Charge - -Mr Andrew Kartick - NCERD

Appreciation Mr Devendre Persaud - Graduate

Regional Chairman offers congratulation

There were special items from Ms Megan Clarke, Ms Carmel Roberts, Ms Beverley Munesar,

Mr Patrick John and a pupil from Malgre Tout Primary School. There were remarks made by the Regional Chairman, Ms Moses Grant (Master Trainer) and Ms Chiveon Bovell (trainee).

All were presented with certificates for succeeding in the 18 month programme and the top performer - Ms Sharmilla Ramkissoon and regional runner up - Ms Chiveon Bovell were presented with trophies.

Mr Kartick gives the Charge

NCERD offers congratulations to all of the graduates.

If you want to see more photographs, click on the link below:

Region 3 Graduation December 2008

The Programme

Ministry of Education holds consultations on aspects of secondary education

Thanks to the GINA Government website for this article 1st December 2008

Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh stressed the importance of consultations today during a meeting the Ministry of Education held with stakeholders to consult on some issues of secondary education in Guyana. Minister Baksh noted that the Education Ministry views consultations with stakeholders as critical in moving the education system forward. The Minister said that today’s consultations deals with four major issues relating to the secondary curriculum. Chief Education Officer (ag) Genevieve Whytenedd, said that “effective school administrators constantly restructure, refashion, remodel, and re-evaluate whatever they are doing because the education is so dynamic and always changing…Because our country is so diverse we are here to sit to work together and see if whatever we are doing is working.”

The four major issues discussed during the consultations comprised several questions relating to secondary education.

The first set of questions addressed under the first issue were:

- Should there be a limit on the number of subjects to be taken at grades 7,8, and 9?,
- Should English Literature be a compulsory subject at Grades 7,8 and 9?,
- On placing students in different streams after Grade 9, should there be a limit on the number of subjects to be taught at Grades 10 and 11 for the CSEC,
- Should Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) be a discrete and time-tabled subject at each Grade and be extended to include moral education?

The second issue dealt with:

- Should Advanced level examinations be discontinued and all students be taught for CAPE?, - --- Should there be a limit to the number of subjects to be taken by students entering to write CAPE
- Should there be compulsory subjects to be taken by students entering to write CAPE?

The third issue addressed included these questions:

- Currently, each sixth form school attempts to offer the full range of subjects at the sixth level; what changes would you propose under the review which will maximize limited resource
- Should a sixth form college be established in Guyana?

Issue four dealt with:

What are your views on changing the school hours to commence from 8:00h?

In relation to limiting the number of subjects offered at CAPE exams, Minister Baksh said that an analysis was done on two schools which revealed that while very few subjects attracted great numbers of writers, most attracted poor numbers of students.

He pointed out that resources are required to set off these exams. During the interactive sessions, many participants shared their views on the questions proposed. The majority of those present were against the proposals. Students also answered most of the questions in the negative.Apart from students, the consultation was attended by District Education Officers, representatives of school Boards, Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers, and officials from the Ministry of Education.