As a measure to address poor results in the subject areas of Mathematics and English at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level in the public school system,Cheap NBA Jerseys China, the first round of the non-graduate certificate course programme for teachers came to an end yesterday with a simple ceremony.At the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) venue a total of 104 teachers graduated, having successfully completed the 18-month long course. Eighty-nine (89) completed the English aspect while 15 had completed training in the area of Mathematics. These teachers,NFL Jerseys Supply, according to Director of NCERD, Mohandatt Goolsarran, will not only help to transform the level of education as it relates to the target subject areas, but they themselves will become eligible for a notable incentive, which will be reflected in their pay package.In addressing the gathering yesterday,Cheap Jerseys, Goolsarran regarded the ceremony as a high point in his professional life. “We have worked so hard to see that we have arrived at this stage. We can put into the school system a batch of teachers who are fully equipped to deal with the CSEC syllabuses in Mathematics and in English.”According to him, it was in 2006 that a ministerial meeting was convened which addressed national performance at the CSEC level. It was recognised, Goolsarran said, that the national performance overall was seriously affected by the two subject areas.“Mathematics and English – these two subject areas we have been obtaining the lowest percentage of passes so a plan was laid out after we would have consulted teachers across the regions… professionals at NCERD, CPCE and the University of Guyana to chart a way forward so that we can deal frontally with issue.”It was through meeting with teachers at various workshops and interaction with supervisors in the school setting, Goolsarran said, that it was revealed that the greatest challenge to education system is the deficiency in the content level of teachers, especially in the two subject areas.And there was interaction with the Commonwealth of learning to determine what would have been the best methodology to reach out to teachers in need.“We came up with a strategy of using the distance education mode as one of the plans to deliver this course.”However, the programme was not without its ramifications, as according to Goolsarran, it was soon recognised that participating teachers were in need of tutorial support. For this reason, a decision was taken to engage a blended approach whereby there were face-to-face sessions once per month for participants.Master trainers were also selected to aid the programme along, Goolsarran added.“We searched far and wide within the various regions for them and those we found for English and Mathematics we organised special training for them. The master trainers sat with us for days to decide on the assignments; to work on the marking schemes and after they would have rolled out the course for about six months we called them for a review of the progress of the course.”And it was during that review process that the master trainers were engaged in the setting of the examination papers.Reflecting on the journey of the inaugural programme,Nike NFL Jerseys China, Goolsarran said that the mathematics course was kicked off with over 100 persons and the English course with over 160. And as it progressed, he said, a number of persons started to drop out of the programme at an alarming rate.“At the national level we became scared that the whole thing would have collapsed because we were not getting students. We turned and begged for help….the Assistant Chief Education Officer (Secondary) was kind enough to issue a circular to say that the training was not optional but mandatory and persons were encouraged.”As a result, several persons opted to rejoin the programme and some new persons also joined thereby delaying the administration of the first examination. The course was structured with approximately nine modules, and after the first four,Wholesale Jerseys, a semi-final examination was written. One month after, those who were not successful were allowed to write a supplemental exam.The valedictorian was Muniram Purnawasi who participated in the mathematics segment of the programme.