Human Resource Development across the Caribbean Community will be further improved with the establishment or revival of five Technical Working Groups by the CARICOM Secretariat.
The Working Groups will develop specific sector policies and standards for the broadening and deepening of equitable access and facilitate relevance and quality in Regional education and training. The Technical Working Groups are Taskforces comprising six key regional experts and one internationally renowned expert who have volunteered their expertise for the advancement of the Region’s Human Resource Development. The five groups cover early childhood education, teaching innovations and educational leadership, open and distance learning and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education, external quality assurance/accreditation and qualifications systems and tertiary education.
The remit of these Technical Working Groups is closely aligned to the mandate given by the Conference of Heads to develop a Human Resource Development 2030 Strategy to provide broad direction for developing key transformational initiatives in education and training in the Region. The policies and standards formulated by these Technical Working Groups will, to a large extent, focus on ensuring that citizens of the Region acquire 21st Century competencies and key skills for the building resilient economies and societies.
Members were selected because of their significant expertise and contributions to development of educational policy and standards in CARICOM Member States and with international agencies. The Groups are led by Chairpersons who are proven regional educational leaders in the areas of emphasis across the Region. The Chairs are Professor Compton Bourne (Tertiary Education), Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald (Open and Distance Learning and ICTs in Education), Dr. Ruby Alleyne (External Quality Assurance and Qualifications Systems), Dr. Marcia Stewart, (Teaching Innovations and Educational Leadership) and Dr. Carol Logie (Early Childhood Education and Development).
Programme Manager, Human Resource Development of the CARICOM Secretariat, Dr. Eduardo Ali, indicated that the policies and standards emanating from these Groups will go a long way in helping the Region achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education – because they will be internationally benchmarked to regulate the provision of equitable access to quality education and life-long learning.
While we have some challenges in the Region’s education, we are particularly delighted to see that after a hiatus, this important work which was mandated by COHSOD is being completed in 2017 so that the Region can make significant leaps into regulating the provision of education and training,” he said.
Click on this link for a full of of the Working Group Members TWGs for regional education and training.
