The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Education Reform Unit (OERU) launched a three-phase project to develop a new 10-year OECS Education Sector Strategy at its headquarters on November 30, 2011.  The purpose of the regional strategy is to encourage collaboration and harmonisation of educational initiatives among Member States and strengthen educational outcomes in the sub-region.

 Head of the OECS Education Reform Unit (OERU) Marcellus Albertin chaired the OERU Technical Working Group at which representatives of the consulting team presented their plans for developing the new strategy over the next five months. The consortium will involve MoE senior managers, principals, teachers, graduates and other stakeholders from each of the Member States in the development process.

An important component of the development is the appointment of a variety of sub-regional Specialist/Expert Boards in various focus areas to develop the OECS Sector Strategy 2012-21. 

Using a variety of media and virtual communication tools, the team will facilitate discussions among national specialists across the sub-region to assess the impact of the previous strategy, “Pillars for Partnership and Progress” and discuss areas of focus for the new strategy.  “Using ICTs to conduct these discussions across the sub-region will demonstrate how virtual communication can facilitate discussion between and among educators in OECS Member States over the next decade; however, face-to-face communication will still remain very important,” observed a member of the consulting team.

The drafts of the impact assessment of the PPP, the concept paper for the new education sector strategy and the direction of the new 10-year strategy will be the subjects of a Regional Consultation scheduled for early February, 2012.

The Technical Working Group comprises eight Chief Education Officers and one Assistant Chief Education Officer from Member States, who have formed a group supporting the consultants.

Three firms comprising the consulting consortium are led by FocalPoint Consulting (Jamaica), and include Merganser Consulting (England) and Nancy George& Associates (Jamaica).