The Sandals Foundation is funding mathematics seminars for 140 Bahamian teachers at the primary and high school levels throughout the coming year.

The seminars which commenced on August 30, 2011, are being hosted at Sandals Royal Bahamian in an effort to assist the teachers in improving Bahamian students’ proficiency in the subject.

According to the Ministry of Education Report on the 2011 BJC / BGCSE Results, released in August this year, 64 per cent of students at the junior high level (grades 7-9) perform at a Grade D or below. At the senior high level, (grades 10-12), 75 per cent also perform at a D or below in Mathematics.

Claudette Rolle, Director of the Catholic Board of Education, said that the presence of the teachers at these Math Seminars shows that Bahamian educators are committed to do whatever is necessary to “improve the mathematics performance of our Bahaman children”.

Mrs Rolle also expressed the teacher’s appreciation for the Sandals Foundation’s assistance.

“The Sandals Foundation has graciously agreed to sponsor this initiative because Sandals too has a stake in the Bahamian community and is committed to national development. There is no better way to help a country develop than by investing in the education of its people,” Mrs Rolle said.

In further pursuit of better Mathematics grades, the expertise of Dr. Marcella Elliott, Assistant Math Professor at the College of the Bahamas (COB), has also been engaged. As Head of the Mathematics Department at COB, Dr Elliott led in the development and revision of the curriculum of mathematics courses as well as the development of a Bachelor of Mathematics degree and assisted with the review of the national mathematics curriculum.

During the initial assessment at the opening of the Sandals Foundation lead seminar, teachers from the Catholic Board of Education, along with Sandals Royal Bahamian’s adopted school, Government High, were assessed in the following areas of perception, content competency and content conceptual understanding.

Following on the results from this assessment, Dr. Elliot will produce a Professional Development Plan that will specifically target the needs of the teachers. Further a series of customized workshops will be formulated to address the needs identified.

As the Bahamas, like many countries in the region, struggles with the global economic down turn, a lot of the funding for programs dedicated to teacher development are eliminated or cut from the system.

Presently, The CBOE governs ten schools on three islands, New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco and employs 262 administrators and teachers.

Heidi Clarke, Director of Programs for the Sandals Foundation said that the foundation’s support for programs such as this is in keeping with the charity’s mandate. " We see teacher training as one of the most important elements to make advances with our educational system here in the Caribbean. Math is one of the core areas that children need to be proficient in and there are constantly new and exciting ways to expose students to the mathematics concepts. With on-going training, teachers are able to keep up to date and in turn provide our regions children greater opportunity to learn"

“The Sandals Foundation is our way of better enabling us to take on more of what needs to be done in the islands where we operate by making the Caribbean the best that we can be,” she said.