Education system to deal with global realitie

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar has underscored the need for the region to pursue an education system that will prepare the next generation to deal with the impact of a changing global environment. Delivering the seventh annual Distinguished Alumni Lecture at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) on Thursday night, Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said that the children of Caribbean were “growing in a world where they have to compete harder than we did, for relatively less resources than we accessed”. She said the new global realities indicate that “Caribbean children will have much more expansive concepts of achievement that are built on completely different variables from the decades past. She told the audience that it is these stark contrasts that have partly guided her as head of government and chair person of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) “to deeply consider our every policy and process approach to sustainable development. “Diversity as we knew it in our time as students, has evolved to such an extent that is has taken on a life virtually of its own. “Beyond heritage, culture and ethnicity, we are now at a moment in time where education and social systems must be broad enough to identify the very different natural and learned skills and abilities of children.” Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said that the “full development of our children that will guide their successful leadership tomorrow must be steered by wider training of teachers to be able to identify social, mental or emotional disorders which may hamper learning. “A modern system of education must also be able to identify particular strengths in sports as well as the arts, and go further by providing appropriate frameworks that will encourage them to pursue their talents, and reward them by stimulating economies to create opportunities.”

Courtesy: www.cananewsonline.com