Education Sector Plan: Education for All: Embracing Change, Securing Finale | Page 40

Education for All: Embracing Change, Securing the Future
Intermediate Outcome 10: Comprehensive student support services are available to learners in all institutions to
support improved learning
Strategies: With a focus on inclusion and providing equitable access to
TARGETS
quality learning outcomes, the MoE recognizes that significant investments
❚ Fully functioning student support
in improving student support services must be made to optimize each
services unit in the MoE
learner’s education and training achievements. Thus, over the plan period,
❚ 100% of mainstream schools with
the MoE will establish a fully functional student support services unit in
access to comprehensive student
the MoE and ensure that comprehensive support services (academic,
support services
behavioural, psycho-social, early-intervention, social safety net) are
❚ 90% of teachers trained in
differentiated instruction and
available to learners in all institutions. In addition to staffing the unit with
inclusion
personnel with the requisite expertise, material resources to support
improved student support services (e.g. screening tools), will be purchased
and deployed as necessary. At the school level, staff will receive in-service training in maintaining inclusive classrooms
and differentiated instruction, identifying learners with special needs, and behaviour management. Funding to support
certification and/or degree-level training in key areas of need will also be sought. As mentioned under Intermediate
Outcome 2, specific programming will be implemented at the secondary level to support students at risk of leaving
school before Form 5. Additionally, parent sensitization sessions on available student support services will be held.
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Programme Area 4: Professionalizing the Teaching Force
Intermediate Outcome 11: Increase in the percentage of qualified teachers at all levels and improved gender parity
in the teaching force
Strategies: Quality teachers can be considered the lynchpin of quality
education provision. With the percentage of trained teachers at only 8%,
TARGETS
71%, and 51% at ECD, primary, and secondary levels, respectively, and a
❚ 15% of ECD, 80% of primary, and
60% of secondary teachers are
teaching force that is predominantly female (100% at ECD, 90% at primary,
teacher-trained
and 69% at secondary), the Ministry will take several steps to recruit and
❚ 80% of full-time instructors at post-
retain qualified teachers. First, it will implement a proactive and data-driven
secondary and tertiary level have at
recruitment process. This will be informed by data on teaching gaps, as
least a post-graduate certification or
well as facilitators and deterrents to entering the profession, with additional
equivalent
❚ Males comprise 3% of the ECD,
emphasis on strategies to recruit qualified males. Second, as is done in many
15% of the primary, and 37% of the
other countries around the world, the Ministry will work to institutionalize
secondary teaching force
pre-service training for teachers by establishing the necessary frameworks
over the plan period. With this framework in place, by 2030 no teacher
should be recruited into the classroom unless already teacher-trained. Third, the Ministry will seek to improve the
retention of qualified teachers by implementing a continuous professional development framework and improving
career path motivation. Additionally, in TVET areas at the secondary and post-secondary levels, the MoE, with support
from the Caribbean Development Bank, will provide certification training up to the degree level for approximately 45
instructors.
Intermediate Outcome 12: Qualified teachers are equitably deployed within and between institutions at the ECD to
post-secondary level and, where relevant, teach within their field of expertise
Strategies: As the deployment of qualified teachers to schools and
placement within schools is not systematically monitored, the Ministry will
analyse current deployment and placement practices and, where necessary,
redeploy qualified teachers to ensure equity within and across schools. It is
important that all schools have approximately equal numbers of qualified
teachers and that, within schools, qualified teachers are not concentrated
in certain grades or ability streams. The issue of equitable deployment of
qualified teachers will also form part of the upcoming equ