(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) When the Fourth Meeting of the CARICOM Regional Task Force on Teaching and Teacher Education gets underway in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday, Its first and main business at hand is to look at how the Community can develop and harmonise standards in Teacher Education across the Caribbean region, in a bid to raise the bar of excellence in the teaching and learning environment.

The Task Force is meeting under the banner of Promoting quality education and schools through teaching and teacher qualification to plan for the development of the Regional Standards for Teacher Education as well as the establishment of national councils; to draft the template for Stakeholders Consultations in Member States and to review its achievements to date.

It is envisaged that the Task Force will treat with standards in critical issues such as recruitment and entry qualifications for persons entering the teacher training colleges. Regulatory standards such as registration and licensing of trained teachers will also be addressed, and the Task Force will also explore approaches to establishing regulatory councils at the national level in countries where none exist currently and will chart a plan of action in assisting Member States in setting up these councils. These councils will be strategically aligned to a regional regulatory council as part of the thrust in creating an enabling environment in which teachers can develop professionally and maintain standards wherever they choose to teach within the CARICOM Single Market.

The Meeting will also review progress towards the development of a public education and advocacy strategy to solicit buy-in from key stakeholders - especially those in the teacher training colleges - in effecting the relevant changes and providing the enabling environment for the effective implementation of the standards after they are developed.

The Work Plan for 2010 - 2011 will be finalised also.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org