Basseterre, St. Kitts, Tuesday, January 24, 2023 (EMU) —Minister of Education Hon Dr. Geoffrey Hanley announced Thursday, January 18 that classrooms across the Federation will be transitioning from a traditional classroom to one that is hyflex in nature. This announcement was made in an address made to those in attendance at the Enhancing Learning Continuity Project (ELCP) Launch at the CUNA Conference Center.
“The ELC Project is structured to provide required technology to our students and educators for remote and hybrid learning, supportive of my government’s commitment to foster meaningful change and development in our education system. The project’s primary technology device investment adequately equips 3700 secondary students, 95% of the federal secondary student population, with state-of-the-art laptops and 4000 primary students 80% of the federal primary population, with well-equipped tablet devices,” the Minister articulated.
Noting that the investment aligns itself with his evolutionary vision for the classroom, Minister Hanley expounded “It [ELCP] provides the technology underpinning for the modern classroom, to facilitate the differentiated learning experiences necessary for our federation’s students, to gain the 21st century skills and digital mastery required to compete even further in the regional and international spheres.”
Expressing the critical role played by teachers to the successful transformation of the classrooms, Minister Hanley, mentioned
“The CDB Enhancing Learning Continuity Project goes further in equipping our teachers as facilitators, to be cyber security-aware and monitors of Internet-empowered learning environments. This project provides some 400 laptops for our teachers while bridging the gap between the tooling of our teachers and training them to utilize the technology for maximizing student outcomes.”
Training will be offered to teachers to ensure teachers are adequately prepared for the demands of the hyflex classrooms.
“Under the OECS Commission’s Effective Pedagogy for Distributed Teaching and Learning Course some 150 educators will be afforded access to a certification course implemented by the School of Education, of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. This comprehensive and balanced 3 credit hour course presents a critical human capital development resource to our educator workforce, which underpins the project’s technology deployment by shaping the environment best suited to student success.”
Communicating the ministry’s understanding of the need for a multi-dimensional approach to sustainable education sector, Minister Hanley stated,
“The Ministry of Education is by no means of the view that it is the technology devices alone that will build sector resilience. We instead aim to leverage the well thought out project components to develop and nurture the perhaps most crucial ecosystem in the enhancing of learning continuity, that of student, teacher, parent, policy and practice.”