The education sector budget has an allocation of over $500 million earmarked for the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) to go fully online with its teachers’ training programme.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, M.P, made this announcement during her presentation on day-three of the national budget debate, during the 39th Sitting of the 12th Parliament yesterday.
Minister Manickchand said the initiative will allow for thousands of teachers across the country to access training, as part of the PPP/C Government’s plans to improve the quality of learning outcomes in all educational institutions. “We were able to move our intake at CPCE from 536 to 3000, giving the Amerindian teachers a chance to get degrees in education and not just trained teachers’ certificate,” she explained.
The minister said when government took office in August 2020, there were no plans in place to reopen the CPCE. This year, the teachers’ training college graduated its largest batch of 843 teachers.
In 2021, the CPCE recorded its largest enrolment of over 3,000 students. This was facilitated through a new blended approach of online and in-person delivery of teacher training, at a cost of $556 million. The initiative served to advance Government’s objective of improving the quantity and quality of trained teachers in schools, so that the target of 85 percent trained teachers by 2025 and 100 percent by 2027 is achieved.
