TEACHERS have been reminded that “the school is very different from what was in 1962 but the keys to success remain the same – discipline, commitment and hard work, among others”.
That sound reminder came from Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture director general Dr Chelston Brathwaite.
While emphasizing that he was aware of some of the joys and challenges of teaching since he was a teacher for one year, 1962 to 1963, Brathwaite also said that he had been an educator of man during his lifetime as he outlined a template of education that could benefit all levels of erudition.
Brathwaite was delivering the feature address at the annual graduation ceremony of the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College before an audience of former and current principals and teachers, including Minister of Education Ronald Jones, historian Robert “Bobby” Morris, former Chief Education Officer Ralph Boyce and the current holder of that post, Laurie King.
Quoting Ernst Friedrich “Fritz” Schumacher, Brathwaite said that thinker was right in 1974 and . . . “he continues to be right in the 21st century in asserting that education is the most vital of all resources because all human progress, all development, has resulted from the innovation, the creativity and the ideas of the human mind using the natural resources of our planet to create a better world”.
However, Brathwaite pointed out that in this information age, “because of the speed of the redundancy of information and knowledge we cannot just go to school or to university and assume that that education will last for a lifetime. In this information age, education must consist of lifelong learning”.
In an obvious reference to the financial crisis facing Barbados and the world, Brathwaite stressed the need for financial education where entrepreneurship is assuming greater roles in our society and where our education system must seek to produce graduates who are job creators rather than job seekers.
While applauding the concept of having a graduate in every household in Barbados, Brathwaite suggested that . . . “the universities of the 21st century must therefore change from being places of the production of graduates and must become the engines of development and the places for the production of a new generation of leaders and a new generation of entrepreneurs.
Earlier, Erdiston principal Barbara Parris spoke of the changing role of the college which was established in 1948 and which continues to fulfill its mandate of educating and training educators of the Caribbean.
Over 90 beaming teachers received their certificates, associate degrees, diplomas, or awards in primary education, secondary education or educational management and administration.
Entertainment was provided by the Barbados Defence Force Band, Chantal Martin, of Combermere School, who sang Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Rickardo Reid, of George Lamming Primary, who did a poetic piece I Soon Gine Go Pon Pressure Tablets.
