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Education Minister Commends UWI for Launching CCEP

By: , March 15, 2018

The Key Point:

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has thanked the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, for launching the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning (CCEP), which will assist schools to create their annual school improvement plans.
Education Minister Commends UWI for Launching CCEP
Photo: Donald De La Haye
Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid.

The Facts

  • Senator Reid explained that the CCEP is an inaugural and new scientific management system, which Jamaica needs to assist with School Improvement Planning on a micro level, and also the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information at the macro level.
  • “I’m extremely proud that you [CCEP] have brought us to this place. It’s historic. It provides the springboard for us as policymakers and practitioners to refine how we develop the plans that we have for the education system, for our individual nations and the Caribbean,” Mr. Reid said.

The Full Story

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has thanked the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, for launching the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning (CCEP), which will assist schools to create their annual school improvement plans.

The local arm of the CCEP was launched on Wednesday (March 14), at the UWI Regional Headquarters in Mona, St. Andrew.

Senator Reid explained that the CCEP is an inaugural and new scientific management system, which Jamaica needs to assist with School Improvement Planning on a micro level, and also the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information at the macro level.

“I’m extremely proud that you [CCEP] have brought us to this place. It’s historic. It provides the springboard for us as policymakers and practitioners to refine how we develop the plans that we have for the education system, for our individual nations and the Caribbean,” Mr. Reid said.

He argued that the services of the CCEP will assist schools to prepare vision statements that will assist the administrators, teachers, students, parents and other stakeholders to have a clear and straightforward understanding of the direction in which the schools should be going.

“When we talk about education and education planning, there was no central planning of education… so I laud this in your 70th anniversary of the University of the West Indies, as you [try] to solve a nation’s problem,” he said.

A regional agent of the UWI, the CCEP aims to provide mechanisms that will address the needs of the Caribbean region for improved educational planning. It has the objective of driving the transformation of the education systems and improve educational outcomes.

By providing support at both the micro (individual educational institutions) and macro (sector-wide) planning levels, the Centre will also serve as a repository of educational research information and advisor to Governments of the region.

The CCEP’s regional launch took place in Barbados last June. Since then, they have been working with schools, both regionally in the Caribbean, and locally in Jamaica.

For his part, Head, CCEP, Dr. Canute Thompson, said the Centre supports countries and educational institutions in developing their strategic plans at the country level.

“We seek to look at issues such as movement in population, birth rate, levels of performance of students, and to assist the countries in projecting where they want to see the education system in the next five years,” Dr. Thompson said.

“At the institution level, we look at students’ current performance, the schools resources, and we seek to bring a wide cross section of stakeholders in charting the school improvement plan for the next three to five years,” he added.

Locally, two schools – Spaldings High School in Clarendon and Rhodes Hall High School in Westmoreland, have been assisted in developing their school improvement plans.

There are advanced stages of consultations with other schools regarding the development of other plans, as well as with corporate entities whose contributions are being sought to enable the CCEP to provide planning to support the schools.

Meanwhile, Principal of Spaldings High, George Henry, has high praises for the programme.

“When I heard about this institution, I heard at a time when we were in the process of putting together our School Improvement Plan. We were introduced to new concepts that helped us to ensure that we put this important document together,” Mr. Henry said.

For her part, Principal, Rhodes Hall High School, Mrs. Loreen Aljoe, shared similar sentiments.

“The plan is user-friendly and it provides a wider scope for everybody, which allows even the students to follow where we are going. Based on what I have gathered from the teachers, all stakeholders were involved, the vendors and other community persons. I must admit that this was a very good opportunity, considering that I’ve never ever had the vendors involved in planning that goes on for the school. We would just see the vendors as persons who are there but not connected to the school in a positive way,” she said.

Last Updated: February 15, 2019

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