Education Minister Urges Innovation in School Leadership

Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, is urging school leaders to embrace innovation and bold ideas to improve educational outcomes.

Addressing principals and other senior educators at a recent School Leadership Conference in St. Ann, the Minister underscored the importance of educators being creative in their teaching methods.

“If there’s anything you can take away from what I have said, it’s to be creative and try different things,” she said.

Dr. Morris Dixon noted that while some school leaders are hesitant to implement new ideas for fear of failure, progress often comes from experimentation.

“We get better by trying things, understanding where it worked, where it didn’t work, and soon you can innovate and do it better. So please, I ask you to keep being innovative,” she urged.

She pointed out that innovation is not limited to technology, but includes leadership approaches, instruction and rethinking programme structures.

“What I want to see is you being successful… and your success is your children leaving school better than they came in,” she said.

Dr. Morris Dixon also encouraged school leaders to use the conference to reflect on new solutions tailored to their specific contexts.

“As you’re sitting here, think about your school. Think about what will work,” she said, noting that their ground-level insight best positions them to design impactful solutions.

“You are on the ground. You understand better what is needed. The posture of the Ministry is that we have to work with our schools and be flexible,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Education Minister expressed pleasure at the strong interest of educators in artificial intelligence (AI), noting that they are eager to participate in development sessions.

“The University of the West Indies was doing a seminar on artificial intelligence… it was oversubscribed, and they didn’t have enough space. They were running around trying to change to Zoom so that more people could be a part of it,” she pointed out.

Dr. Morris Dixon said that the AI conversation is being driven by school leaders, who are looking at ways to modernise teaching and make learning more effective.

She noted that the world is changing and “they have to change also so that they can help our children to reach their true potential.”