Educational Leaders Urged to Provide Creative Solutions to Sector Challenges
By: , February 20, 2023
Photo: Nickieta Sterling
Minister of Education and Youth, Hon Fayval Williams (left), converses with Principal of Church Teachers’ College in Manchester, Dr. Garth Anderson, following the graduation ceremony for Temple University/Church Teachers’ College Master’s student cohort at the Holiday Inn Resort, Rose Hall, St James, on Thursday (February 16).
Photo: Nickieta Sterling
Minister of Education and Youth, Hon Fayval Williams, addresses the Temple University/Church Teachers’ College Master’s in Educational Leadership graduation ceremony at the Holiday Inn Resort, Rose Hall, St James, on Thursday (February 16).The Full Story
Educational leaders are being encouraged to provide adaptive and creative solutions to challenges within the sector, which will also serve to transform their schools into visionary institutions.
To achieve this, Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, says the stakeholders should pursue leadership development that is competency-based, “relevant, flexible, practical, and peer-oriented, to respond to the existing and emerging exigencies of our schools and school systems”.
She was addressing the graduation ceremony for the 2023 cohort of Church Teachers’ College and the United States-based Temple University Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership programme, at the Holiday Inn Resort in Rose Hall, St James, on Thursday (February 16). Mrs. Williams noted that much more is being demanded of teachers and principals at all levels now as against 15 to 20 years ago.
“Teachers are now asked to guide students to achieve even greater academic success amid globalisation and the figurative shrinking of our world,” she stated.
Mrs. Williams further shared that the Ministry continues to prioritise improvements in educational leadership, noting that this is both an individual and institutional responsibility.
She said training, such as that offered by Temple University and Church Teachers’ College as well as the Ministry’s National College for Educational Leadership, has been enabling educators to develop their craft, so that they can make meaningful changes to the sector.
Mrs. Williams, in congratulating the sixteen graduates, expressed confidence that their leadership training will give them the aptitude to become change agents and transformative leaders.
Principal of Church Teachers’ College, Dr. Garth Anderson, implored the graduates to seize the opportunity to advance the sector.
“Jamaica’s education sector can only benefit from having leaders who are prepared to respond to the changes, creating and embracing and ensuring greater accountability for student success,” he said.
“In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things,” Dr. Anderson added.