NASSAU, Bahamas — The Government of The Bahamas, and by extension the Ministry of Education, is a signatory to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal No. 4, the provision of quality education, and the Ministry has announced that one of its five main objectives for the 2019/2020 school year is the transformation of public education in The Bahamas through the execution of a comprehensive digitization programme, according to information from a source at the Ministry of Education.
“We are pleased, therefore, that The Bahamas has been selected to participate in the OAS/CITEL’s Digital Classroom Program within the context of the 2030 ICT Alliance of the Americas,” the source said. “This project, in collaboration with ProFuturo, is designed to train teachers in the use of ProFuturo integrating technology as a tool for the teaching process. It will focus on the traditional core subjects of Language Arts, Mathematics and Science, and it is anticipated that will produce improved results in our 6th Grade Level Assessment Tests (GLAT).”
Through the efforts of officers in the Ministry of Education – including Mrs. Lorraine Armbrister, Permanent Secretary; Ms. Sharon Poitier, Deputy Director of Education, and Ms. Samantha Wilson, Education Officer for Technology Integration — and representatives of Office of the Attorney-General, and OAS representatives Luiz Benitez and Alin Valenzuela, the initial introduction of this project at the Ninth IAMME in 2017 has finally been realized, the source stated.
“We thank each of them for their unwavering efforts and we are pleased to join our country colleagues who have already signed their respective agreements,” the source said.
This Digital Mobile Classroom Project, which will span the period December 10, 2019 to December 31, 2020, “not only provides 48 devices each for 24 of our primary schools, but a digital platform that is a Learning Management System, which allows the creation of a virtual learning environment for our schools,” the source stated. “This platform will allow teachers to generate work spaces with students where content and activities can be adapted to meet the leaning needs of students. Additionally, it will allow the teachers to personalize and indigenize the content for our students. It has the potential to impact some 7.500 students, providing on-going training for coaches and support to the teaching staff. Some of the schools benefitting in this initial phase are Carlton Francis Primary School, Centreville Primary School, Palmdale Primary School, Garvin Tynes Primary, Ridgeland Primary School and Woodcock Primary School, to name a few. “
“December 10, 2019 is indeed a re-letter day for us and we are pleased to announce that agreement has been reached between The Ministry of Education and Profuturo,” the source stated.
