Education

Over the past three years, the Education Reform Unit of the OECS has sought to strengthen the enabling environment outside of direct ministerial responsibility, through work with key stakeholder groups interested in education. The Education Reform Unit feels that a new political and social space must be created to engage the learners themselves, civil society, the media, parents and communities in sustained dialogue, decision-making and innovation around nationally oriented goals for learning

OECS Ministers of Education have requested that research be conducted to investigate factors that lead to relatively high rates of indiscipline in school and suggest policy options. Further, the Ministers requested that consideration be given in the study to outof-school factors that impinge on the quality of school discipline. Previous work by the OERU has provided some useful results in this area that can be expanded through the study

This document presents the conclusions reached in a meeting on Teachers' Code of Ethics held in St. Lucia 10 -12 November 2003. Representatives of all OECS Ministries of Education and Teachers' Unions/Associations participated in the development of the draft Code of Ethics.

This report reflects the outcome of a three day consultative process involving practicioners from the countries of the sub region. The participants included a science education professor, science teacher educators, science curriculum residents, education officers and one infant level teacher. The development of the learning outcomes also took into consideration current developments in science and technology education in CARICOM and in other regions of the world

Suggestions for overall goals ofthe Language Arts curriculum were generated and learner profiles were delineated at the OECS /OERU Sub-regional Curriculum and Remediation Planning Workshop which was held in Antigua from November 25 - 30, 1998.

Leadership and management of educational services and schools are evolving concepts and practices. Educational management and leadership as efficiency have had a long history, being focused for a long time on ideas about production from the world of industry. Social science influences have also shaped the course of educational leadership casting the phenomenon in a psychological or sociological paradigm. In recent times the concentration has been on accountability, using such terminology as key result areas, level of effort, deliverable/output, outcome and impact.

During the years 1998 and 1999 the OECS Education Reform Unit conducted a Student Attitude Survey in the nine OECS countries. This survey resulted from a concern that students in the Eastern Caribbean were displaying signs of alienation from the educational process. The aim of the survey was to "better understand students' hopes, fears, aspirations and ambitions as well as their attitudes towards school work and their future lives," (OERU 1999). The research process involved the use of structured questionnaires completed by students and teacher ratings of students' performance and behaviour. There were also focus group discussions with out-of-school youth, parents and teachers.

Montserrat's only post-secondary technical and vocational education and training institution, the Montserrat Technical College, had its buildings destroyed during the summerof 1997 by the activities of the Soufriere Hills Volcano. Plans made prior to the onset of the volcanic activity in 1995 to upgrade the then Montserrat Technical College into a multidisciplinary Community College were therefore affected. Montserrat's participation in a regional project, the OECS/EDF Human Resource Development Tertiary Level Programme, geared to improve the infrastructure, delivery and overall effectiveness of OECS Tertiary Level multidisciplinary institutions including the Montserrat Community College, was also affected by the volcanic crisis. These problems were further exacerbated in 1997 by the evacuation of almost two thirds of the island's population, resulting in the closure of the Montserrat Technical College and the cessation of the 'A' Level programme at the Montserrat Secondary School.

Recorrunendations for OECS TVET Development: THE WAY FORWARD FOR TVET" serves as a synopsis of the OECS TVET Policy Document. These documents ave been developed by the OECS/GTZ TVET Project in accordance with the mandate given by the OECS Ministers of Education during the 7th Annual Meeting in Montserrat, November, 1993

The workshops were held in the three Ministries of Education and were organised by the respective Planning Units within each state

Isues of particular interest that raised were

1 The large number of children repeating grades throughout the system (All).
2 Numbers graduating from the colleges and their suitability for teaching (St Lucia, St Vincent)
3 The way in which teachers were allocated at the primary level (St Vincent) and secondary level (St Lucia, St Vincent)

These explanations were then followed by the participants completing an exercise on each section

In support of improving access to and the quality of early childhood development (ECD) services, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission’s Education Development Management Unit (EDMU), in collaboration with UNICEF and the Foundation for the Development of Caribbean Children (FDCC), sought to produce an Integrated Operations Framework for the ECD Sector in the OECS. Theoretically, the Operations Framework is the systematic analysis of the functioning of inter-related activities designed to result in the effective delivery of ECD services for children from birth to five years. Through the production of this framework, the stakeholders, are in a position to identify every existing opportunity to leverage and new structures to build on in order to harmonise the systems of delivering integrated ECD services to the Caribbean’s children.

Education leaders have a responsibility to respond when students experience difficulty with their schooling, so it is imperative that they identify and act on their concerns to enable early and effective intervention for students. Risks for students may involve individual, social, emotional or physical factors, or may be related to family or community factors. Consequently, children who are often made vulnerable in such contexts are seen as “at risk” through either poverty or disability. In short, there is a group of children ‘left behind’ in schools whose educational futures are bleak.

In an effort to address some of these inequalities impacting education quality in the OECS, Member States have embarked on the provision of a variety of student support services for

vulnerable and at-risk students. This report commissioned by the OECS Commission examines the nature, features, issues and challenges surrounding the provision of Student Support Programmes across the OECS sub-region, and makes recommendations for strengthening the provision of SSS in member states.

This document presents the outputs from the advanced stage of the consultancy being undertaken to review and revise the OECS Teacher Performance Appraisal Scheme. It delivers the Situational and Gap Analysis and the Consequential Possibilities for the OECS Teacher Performance Appraisal Scheme. It also delivers the Recommended Performance Management Framework and the Revised Performance Appraisal Instruments (including new ones).

This assignment began effetively from ,March 6, 1983, following UWI approval of a request from the Director General of the OECS for services. While the task of designing an appropriate programme of tertiary education development for seven (7) distinct political units is quite demanding and ·continuous, some of the difficulties to be faced in the short time available were considerably eased by the fact that many of the pertinent issues have been extensively documented in reports of various committees of the University of the West Indies, as well as to some extent in reports prepared by or on behalf of the Governments of the Eastern Caribbean States (ECS) which are Non Campus Countries (NCCs).

Proposed Immediate Regional Response Strategy to COVID-19 for the OECS Education Sector