Educational Leadership and Management Conference from August 20-21

Leaders from all levels of the education system are set to participate in the inaugural educational leadership and management conference from August 20-21.

The two-day event, under the theme: ‘Education Leadership and Management in Jamaica: from nursery to university,’ will be held  at the Holiday Inn Resort in Montego Bay, St. James.

It is being organised jointly by the Institute of Educational Leadership and Management-Jamaica (IEAL-J); the National College on  Educational Leadership (NCEL); Catholic College of Mandeville; College of Health Sciences at the  University of Technology (UTech); and the International University of the Caribbean (IUC).

Addressing a JIS Think Tank today (Aug. 11), Conference Chair and Vice President of the IEAL-J, Dr. Carmel Roofe, said the event as borne out of the November 2014 public lecture on ‘Successful and Effective School Leadership in Jamaica,’ which was organised by the IEAL-J.

She said it will bring together teachers, principals, students, researchers, research students, policy-makers, educators and representatives from civil society “to engage in interactive discussions focussing on issues that are unique to Jamaica and deriving solutions that are unique for our context.”

President of the Catholic College of Mandeville in Manchester, Dr. Laurett Bristol, who will be among the presenters at the conference, said the event provides “an ideal opportunity” for the college to partner with other institutions in Jamaica.

“It is critical, as a young teacher training institution in central Jamaica, in the rural context, for the Catholic College of Mandeville to engage in this partnership, to work towards developing an education system that is not just responsive to the particular needs of the Jamaica educational system but to develop and educational system that is becoming a vanguard for the delivery of quality education across the Caribbean region,” she said.

Keynote speaker at the conference will be Brunel University Academic and Director of IEAL-J, Professor Paul Miller. Minister of Education, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites and Chief Education Officer, Dr. Grace McLean will make presentations.

Other presenters are: Principal Director of  NCEL, Dr. Maurice Smith; Opposition Spokesperson on Education, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith; Associate Professor and Dean of the College of Health Sciences at UTech, Dr. Ellen Campbell-Grizzle; Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer at Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission, Maxine Henry Wilson; Chief Inspector at the National Education Inspectorate,  Maureen Dwyer; and Dr. Ken Brien from the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management in Canada.

Some of the issues to be addressed at the conference include: school leadership in rural and remote schools; social justice leadership; school leadership and community participation; leading sustainable higher education; quality education and quality assurance in education; leading development and leadership development; student leadership; leadership and innovation; and leading  healthy and safe educational institutions.