Dr. Marcella Elliot Assistant Professor, Mathematics Education, The College of The Bahamas leads Math seminar for more than 100 teachers of CBE
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Nassau, Bahamas - Officials have observed in some cases a more than 10 per cent
improvement in math scores among students attending the second largest
school system in The Bahamas.
A series of
Mathematics workshops and seminars sponsored by The Sandals Foundation
for more than 140 Bahamian teachers has been credited for this success.
The
Sandals Foundation is continuing its sponsorship of the program this
upcoming school year after beginning a partnership with the Catholic
Board of Education (CBOE) at the beginning of the 2011-2012 academic
year.
This partnership facilitated the hosting of
three Mathematics Workshops. Workshops were held in New Providence,
Grand Bahama and Abaco and were all conducted under the expert tutelage
of Dr. Marcella Elliot Assistant Professor, Mathematics Education, The
College of The Bahamas.
More than 140 generalist and
specialist teachers participated in these seminars. These initial
workshops were followed by smaller sessions throughout the academic year
that catered to all teachers responsible for the teaching of
Mathematics in Bahamian Catholic Primary Schools.
These
series of workshops and seminars yielded some impressive results during
the 2011 -2012 academic year. When analyzing the results of the
Archdiocesan Mathematics Examinations, improvements were observed in all
primary schools within the system. .
Officials
observed an increase of 11.4% amongst the scores of students between
grades K-3 and an increase of 5.7% amongst students in grades 4-6.
Because
of the impressive results achieved during the last school year The
Sandals Foundation has continued its sponsorship and support of the
program for the 2012 – 2013 academic year.
The
training affects more than 100 teaches in New Providence, 50 in Grand
Bahama and 25 in Abaco. These teachers affect more than 2000 students
which is a little more than 5 per cent of the school going population of
the entire country.
The teachers gathered at Sandals Royal Bahamian last week for their first session.
Addressing
the teachers, General Manager of Sandals Royal Bahamian Patrick Drake
congratulated the teachers on their successes of the past year.
He
pointed out that because the standards of what constitutes a basic
education is constantly changing it is imperative for corporate Bahamas
to support both education and educators.
“Back in
the day the most basic entry level position in the hospitality industry
used to be a pot washer. Today we are putting that same pot washer
behind a $50,000 piece of equipment and asking him on a daily basis to
measure fluids in the right proportion to maintain our high sanitation
standards.
“You have the most difficult and
important to job in our society because our community benefits from the
work you do in the classroom,” he said.
Director of
Catholic Education Claudette Rolle said that the Foundation’s
sponsorship was not only worthwhile to the Catholic Board of Education
but to the country as a whole.
“Investing in
national development is imperative to our success as a nation and I
would like to thank the Sandals Foundation for their commitment to the
continued enrichment of our country,” she said.
