Regional Teaching Standards to be Reviewed

Experts from the Caribbean and Latin America will examine Standards for the Teaching Profession at a consultation this week.

The sessions will involve approximately 100 participants comprising teachers, representatives from teacher organisations, Ministry of Education representatives, academics, Parent-Teacher Association representatives, pre-service teachers, Teacher Trainees and Teacher Task Force regional focal points.

The consultation begins on Wednesday,  17 July 2019, at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre in Georgetown, Guyana, and is being facilitated through a partnership with the CARICOM Secretariat, UNESCO and other stakeholders.

It is being undertaken as part of a series of consultation workshops being done in five regions internationally to acquire input from key education stakeholders including teachers, teacher organisations, education planners, teaching regulatory councils, teacher educators, and researchers. Participants will be asked to review and comment on a guidance framework and suggest ways in which it can be refined as well as recommend approaches for local adaptations. The consultations will also facilitate social dialogue to ensure that teachers and their organisations participate in the decision-making processes in the development and implementation of instruments that affect the profession.

The Consultation will also assist with fulfilling a mandate from the XXXIV Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD), Education, 2-4 May 2018, which instructed the CARICOM Secretariat to consult with educational stakeholders in the development of CARICOM Standards for Teachers, Educational Leaders, and Teacher Educators. The development of standards for practice also advances the mission of the CARICOM Human Resource Development 2030 Strategy to “enable [our] people as they progress from their earliest years to senior adulthood to reach their full potential in their personal and working lives, contributing to their families, communities and national and regional development.”

An International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (Teacher Task Force) has been established to support governments and teacher organisations to agree on and implement a common understanding of teaching and teacher quality. The aim is to also assure the quality of teacher education curricula and qualifications through standards that describe competency profiles at different stages of a teacher’s career. Additionally, it is expected to assist with safeguarding joint regulation of the profession by detailing governance and accountability mechanisms for assuring the provision of quality teacher education and quality teaching.

Consultations will be held in each of the five UNESCO regions. The first regional consultation workshop covered the Africa region and took place in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) on 18-19 March 2019. Following each regional consultation workshop, a group of international experts meets to review and discuss the input generated from the stakeholder discussions. They are expected to provide direction on further development and refinement of the international guidance framework.

Source: CARICOM TODAY