Mico Research Day to Examine 2015 National Education Inspectorate Report

Hundreds of educators are expected to participate in The Mico University College’s 2016 Research Day, scheduled for Wednesday, March 16.

The annual event will be held at the institution’s Marescaux Road campus in Kingston under the theme: ‘Vision 2030 and Beyond: Implications of the National Education Inspectorate (NEi) Report, 2015’.

Executive Director of the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI), Dr. Fritz Pinnock, will be the guest speaker at the opening ceremony scheduled for March 15 at 5:00 p.m.

Addressing a JIS Think Tank today (March 9), Senior Research Fellow at Mico and Chair of the Research Day activities, Sandra Grey Alvaranga, said that this year’s event  will examine the  NEI report, which assessed over 900 schools in Jamaica.

“Research Day 2016 is designed to provide a platform for the full evaluation of the performance of Jamaica’s education system based upon the analysis provided in the NEI report and to propose solutions to the issues raised,” she informed.

Of particular concern is that the report found that 55 percent of schools are under-performing, Mrs. Alvaranga said, noting that “Research Day will provide an opportune time for educators to reflect on the factors leading to that underperformance.”

The day’s activities will target educators, including education researchers and new teachers.

The programme will include a plenary session, with presentations from Chief Inspectorate of the NEI, Maureen Dwyer, who will give an overview of the NEI report, while President of The Mico, Dr. Asburn Pinnock, will speak on the role of teacher training institutions in education outcomes.

Principal of Holy Trinity High School, Margaret Brissett Bolt, and Principal of Padmore Primary, Keisha Hayle, will also look at factors contributing to the success or failure of schools.

In addition, there will be workshops, which will examine topics such as ‘Spicing up the Classroom for Boys’, and presentation of papers.

According to Mrs. Alvaranga, the objective of the Research Day is to look at solutions “that have broad applications that more people can utilise in a very realistic way and implement in their own classrooms.”

“We want to look at progressive pedagogy. We want to look at the evaluation process and make recommendations to the Ministry of Education and we want to capture all the outcomes of the day and circulate it within the education community and those that require promotion to the policy level, we will craft policy position papers,” she said.

Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Elaine Foster Allen, will be the guest speaker at the closing ceremony where she will speak on the topic: ‘Getting the Education Sector Ready for the Future, Changing the Orthodoxy’.

Mico is celebrating its 180^th anniversary this year.