Teachers' aides initiative launched

Fri, Jan 13th 2012, 08:35 AM

Three hundred and twenty-eight teachers' aides were welcomed into the government's Teachers' Aides Job and Skills Training Initiative that was launched yesterday.
The aides will be placed at various schools, libraries and departments within the Ministry of Education.
The launch event, held at the British Colonial Hilton, was attended by scores of teachers from across New Providence as well as Minister of Education Desmond Banister, Director of Education Lionel Sands and Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.
Ingraham said he was pleased with the response to the program, adding that many Bahamians place their children in private schools because of the smaller class sizes and the presence of teachers' aides.
"We are seeking to develop in the public education system, a cadre of teachers aides... to add quality to our classroom experience," he said.
Ingraham also noted that although the government's expenditure on education is large, it is not targeted.
"One of the things we will seek to do [in the] next budget period is to target expenditure in education more, so that [schools] will have more teachers' aides," Ingraham said.
He continued, "We still have far too many students coming out of our primary schools, entering our junior schools who cannot read or write.
"We expect that this cadre of teachers' aides we will put in place will assist in minimizing and reducing the number of such students (those who cannot read or write) who leave the primary school system in The Bahamas."
Ingraham said there will be opportunities for some of the trainees to secure permanent employment as a teachers' aide - if their performance is up to standard.
The aides were placed in the system as a part of the government's $25 million National Job Readiness and Training Initiative.
Of the total, 328, 175 went to New Providence, 13 to Eleuthera, 73 to East and West Grand Bahama, 37 to Abaco, 17 to North and Central Andros and 13 to Exuma.

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