A WORD of warning and one of correction at times must be given – but they must always be spoken
in love.

That was Canon Gregston Gooding's advice to principals, teachers and staff of the Erdiston Teachers' Training College yesterday as the institution celebrated
its 60th anniversary
with a church service at
St George's Parish Church.

He said that as educators, teachers should possess and exercise patience with love, as these qualities played an important part in the fulfilment of their ministry.

The canon told the congregation that although they might at times come in for harsh criticism, those were just some of the pitfalls of their vocation.

Chief Education Officer Wendy Griffith-Watson, in her address, said it was no coincidence that the University of the West Indies was also celebrating its 60th anniversary, with both institutions focusing on their achievements and new goals.

She said the college was proud of what it had achieved, but, for her, the most notable achievement would be the large number of graduates who had been beneficiaries of the teacher training programmes.

"We need to take a look at innovative and relevant programmes, those based on the current challenges and the needs of our young people," she stated.

Griffith-Watson said there were about 45 000 students in the primary and secondary schools and careers had changed, with young people "moving away from the old, preferred occupations".

And, she said people were focused now on regional and extra-regional employment and to be marketable students needed to be good or excellent at what they did.

The chief added that the knowledge and skills which teachers provided would help aid the human capital of the country.

"We must not fool ourselves by not acknowledging the importance of teachers as one of our primary human resource developers.

"In this regard, therefore, Erdiston has provided training for teachers which must, for example, prepare students for each subject . . . . We cannot continue not to have trained teachers in subjects which our students must take," she said.

Griffith-Watson said Erdiston must also offer continuous professional development courses for teachers, some of which were already planned, as in the next few weeks compulsory programmes would be offered for newly-appointed principals.

She also congratulated the college on its new programmes for special needs students.