District Six now has smart classrooms in public schools for the first time. Honorary Education Minister Priya Manickchand today commissioned smart classrooms at New Amsterdam High School and Skeldon Line Trail High School.
While at New Amsterdam High School Minister Manickchand said she was very excited to be commissioning the smart classroom in the region making it the first such facility commissioned in the region in a public school while a smart classroom Skeldon Line Path High School is second in the region. The two classrooms are the clever fifth and sixth classrooms to be commissioned across Guyana.
Despite the joyful occasion, the Education Minister said that we must be aware of the difficult experiences facing Guyana and the world at large because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the pandemic had been a sobering experience for everyone and had a tremendous impact on the education sector.
He said COVID-19 is forcing schools to close and showing how important technology is to providing education. However, while the Ministry of Education has a strategic focus on installing smart classrooms, Minister Manickchand said there is an equal thrust to increase the number of trained teachers in the education system.
“Even as we make smart classrooms across the country and improve facilities to access online teaching, we need to make sure we pay attention to teacher training,” the Education Minister noted.
He said the two go hand in hand. Minister Manickchand reported that from Monday, Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) will begin online teacher training. He said this approach has allowed the college to increase its enrollment from around 500 students last year to over 2000 new students this year.
He explained that over the past 15 years the sector would have moved from 32 per cent of trained teachers in the 90s to 70 per cent. Going forward, Minister Manickchand said, “We commit to you that we will be moving to 100 per cent of trained teachers in the public education system during this term of office. So, as we set up smart classrooms, we’re training teachers. ”
Minister Manickchand said the smart classroom will allow schools to teach lessons to students in any part of the country including the hinterland. This will reduce the disparity in education provision between the hinterland and coastal schools.
“We are building a program in the Ministry to ensure that smart classrooms are not just schools but are used effectively for the benefit of students, teachers and the wider community,” the Minister registered .
Minister Manickchand added that these activities to commission smart classrooms are more than getting headlines in the news and their likes on social media. He said these programs will be analyzed and measured to ensure they are used effectively to produce the desired results.
Regional Chairman, Mr Permaul Armogan said visual learning and the use of technology were extremely important to moving forward in the education process. He said the research had shown that technology-assisted learning had become a better teaching method.
Head of New Amsterdam High School, Ms Vanessa Jacobs said during her remarks that her school does not currently have a physics teacher but with the smart classroom now ready for use, her school can benefit from the help of a physics teacher from a school other such. as Queen’s College in Georgetown.
The smart classrooms have items such as an interactive board, a TV that allows teachers and students to connect and interact remotely. Motion and voice-activated cameras along with a voice recognition feature are also installed to ensure effective communication between participants.