Five hundred and six teachers graduated at the Cyril Potter College of Education’s (CPCE) 81st graduation ceremony yesterday at the National Cultural Centre under the theme “Quality Instructional Leaders: Empowering 21st Century Learners.”
GINA said that four hundred and forty-four teachers were conferred with an Associate Degree, with 83 certified in early childhood, 159 in primary education, 132 in secondary academic, 56 in secondary pre-school vocational and 14 in technical instruction.
The other 62 teachers received a Trained Teachers’ Certificate. Of this number, 21 were trained in early childhood education, 37 in primary education and four in secondary academic, GINA said.
Delivering the feature address, Registrar of the University of Guyana, Dr. Nigel Gravesande said that the graduation should be more than just the conferral of certificates and degrees to the graduates. GINA reported that Gravesande said that the day should also be a reminder, of the inter-connected relationship involving CPCE, the student teachers and the Ministry of Education.
Gravesande cited a recent ELAC study which estimates that the cost to train one single teacher leading to a certificate and/or an associate degree in the region is US$8,000. “If I was to do my mathematics, the cost of your training at minimum would have cost the taxpayers of this country in excess of $590 million. You have to give back something,” Gravesande declared.
It is also in this context that he urged the graduating batch to become agents of change in times of “economic, social, cultural and even spiritual turbulence. We all have the potential to act as a catalyst for growth, development and what is right,” GINA reported him as saying.
CPCE’s principal, Viola Rowe in her report noted an increase in the number of males graduating. Of the total number of students that graduated, 88 percent are females and 12 percent males. This represents a 9 percent increase in the number of males graduating in 2015 as against 2014.
During the period, September 2014 to August 2015, Rowe said that the college offered the one-year Associate Degree in Education (ADE) programme, the two-year ADE programme, the Trained Teacher’s Certificate (TTC) programme and the Teacher Upgrading Programme (TUP.)
Rowe said that of the 14 students who entered the new ADE one-year programme, one was awarded distinction and 13, credit. She said that on the ADE two-year programme, 9 students were awarded distinctions, 418 received credits and there were 3 passes. Fourteen students were awarded credit while there were 16 passes in the TTC programme.
Rowe, according to GINA, said that the college continues to prepare students to respond to the changing need of learners and the education system.
Rowe urged the graduands to strive to give their students even more than they would have received from their lecturers at the college.
“You have earned the fundamental tools from your interaction…these experiences, in concert with the experiences you have gained from the content and the methodology courses you have accessed have placed you in a good position to go out there and be the best quality instructional leaders you could possibly be,” GINA reported Rowe as urging.
This year CPCEs best overall graduand was Tameshwar Mohabir from the two – year ADE programme. Other outstanding performers include Devon Thomas from the one -year ADE programme, Narendra Lall, Delicia Vancooten, Nikita Natasha LaRose, Nick Edwards, Kamini Debi Singh, Alyne Ann-Downes, Dianne Persaud, Sherry Ann Austin and Anthony Chatterpaul from the two- year ADE programme and Lynnette Fiedtkou, and Donna Ambrose from the Trained Teacher’s Certificate Programme.
