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THE

CHAPTER V

Teacher Education

HE NEED for more teachers, and especially for more trained teachers, is recognized as a major need of education at both the elementary and secondary levels in the British Caribbean. The 1957 Regional Conference on the Training of Teachers in the British Caribbean posed the lack of trained teachers as the No. 1 educational problem of the area in the following words:

Above all, most teachers have no training for their work. This is true of primary and all-age schools and also of grant-aided secondary schools in which less than half of all the teachers have a university degree, and only a very small proportion of them any training as teachers.1 Accordingly, the first recommendation of the Conference was to the effect that Governments in the area should accept the long-term aim of having a fully trained teaching service at both these levels of education. The situation and trends in teacher preparation at both levels are discussed here.

Pupil-Teacher System

Elementary Teachers

With respect to the training of teachers for the elementary schools, the overwhelming proportion of teachers have historically been recruited directly from such schools at the time of completing about 8 years of education at age 14 or 15, to serve under what is generally known as the pupil-teacher system. The details of this system vary from territory to territory. In some, the term "pupil-teacher" is no longer in good repute or officially sanctioned. In Jamaica, for example, the term "probationary teacher" is now used because one who has completed the Senior Primary School or Department cannot enter the system without the additional minimum qualification of having passed the first of the three so-called Jamaica local examinations. Likewise, Antigua in the Leeward Islands no longer regards its teachers recruited from the elementary school system as pupil-teachers, but rather as probationary teachers, because the minimum requirement for a beginning teacher has been increased to

1 Teacher Training Conference Report, p. 7. The Recommendations of the Conference, as summarized in its Report, p. 40-43, are listed in Appendix A to this Bulletin.

signify success at a high level on the Post-Primary School Leaving Certificate examination (the Post-Primary School in Antigua is comparable in level to the Senior Primary School in Jamaica). Similar raising of minimum entrance requirements are coming into force in other territories. Regardless of whether these beginning teachers are called pupil-teachers, or probationary teachers, or are given some other designation, the essential feature of the system is the widespread use, as beginning teachers, of young persons lacking both the completion of secondary education and professional training as teachers, under the guidance and supervision of older and "qualified" teachers, most of whom were recruited in the same manner.

In order to become "qualified" or "certificated" teachers, pupil or probationary teachers have had to pass a series of successive examinations varying in number in the different territorial jurisdictions. In some there have been as many as five or six successive examinations. In Jamaica, for example, these examinations have begun with the three so-called Jamaica Local Examinations, which have also been taken by those desiring to enter training for the nursing profession, the police force, and certain other fields. They have usually been considered in Jamaica to represent scholastic achievement at approximately the level of 10 years of elementary-secondary schooling. To complete the process of becoming a certificated teacher in Jamaica, one who has not then been selected or able to enter one of the regular 3-Year Teacher-Training Colleges (and the majority have not, because of lack of sufficient Training College facilities and personal funds for support over a 3-year period) has customarily taken three successive External Teacher Training examinations, each comparable to the 1st, 2d, and 3d year examinations of the Training Colleges. (For purposes of clarification here, the Teacher-Training Colleges of the British Caribbean are not colleges in the United States sense, as will be evident from a later discussion.) In other territories the process has been similar, and in some, the total number of qualifying examinations has been greater.

Pupil and probationary teachers have usually prepared for these examinations by studying in their spare time with help from head teachers, and at times with the assistance of correspondence or special classes during vacation periods and on Saturdays. The process is generally referred to as the External Training of Teachers, because it involves preparation for examinations on general education and professional training, outside the regular secondary schools and teacher-training colleges.2 The 1957 Teacher Training

2 The system is described in detail in V. L. Griffiths, External Teacher Training: A Study of the Problem of the Pupil-Teacher and Probationary Teacher Systems in the British Caribbean (Mona, Jamaica: Centre for Study of Education, University College of the West Indies, 1955).

Conference referred to the whole procedure as a "marathon" which poses such difficulties that only 1 or 2 out of every 10 who begin the process ever became certificated. The Conference noted that "in consequence the teachers suffer frustration before they get a chance of a suitable training; and many children are taught by teachers who are untrained and see little in the way of prospects in their work."

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The existence of this system has been basically a reflection of the economic facts of life in the area. The financial resources of governments have been extremely limited, and pupil teachers could be had for very low compensation, which they have accepted because by the time they are of an age to become pupil-teachers they must obtain some kind of employment to support themselves in a region where full-time jobs are scarce. It seems likely that in time the system will tend to disappear, as the economy of the area develops and resources available for education increase.

Certain developments appear to be evidences of the beginnings of a change in this direction. There is widespread recognition that the pupil-teacher system is an evil and should be dispensed with as soon as possible. There is also recognition that as long the system exists steps should be taken to mitigate its weaknesses. Already mentioned is the practice in some jurisdictions of requiring beginning teachers to have at least one academic qualifying examination beyond the completion of a regular elementary education. Programs of inservice professional orientation and training are being introduced. In Jamaica, plans were being made in 1958-59 for a 20-week preliminary period of professional training for all new probationary teachers before they begin to teach; it was planned to give this preliminary training to 600 beginning probationary teachers in the first 2 years, 150 in each of two 20-week periods each year. In the matter of practical classroom training and supervision for pupil and probationary teachers, the 1957 Regional Conference on Teacher Training recommended "that Governments ensure that all uncertificated teachers receive guidance in the classroom from trained teachers as a normal part of their in-service programme." 4

Another development in the modification of the pupil-teacher system is the tendency toward simplification and reduction in the total number of examinations required to attain the status of certificated teacher. A recommendation to this effect was made by the 1957 Teacher Training Conference, according to which there should not be more than three examinations leading to certification. Such is now the practice, for example, in Antigua, which has reduced the number of such examinations from six to three. A related trend

3 Teacher Training Conference Report, p. 29.

4 Ibid., p. 30.

follows another recommendation of the 1957 Conference that Governments should provide special courses during at least one full school day a week for pupil and probationary teachers preparing for these examinations. Along the same line, plans were being formulated in Jamaica in 1958-59 for a formal 2-year correspondence course to cover the first 2 years of professional training for those teachers who are unable to attend a training college and wish to prepare for the External Teacher Training examinations. Under this plan, the third year of professional training required in Jamaica, which it has heretofore been possible to take externally, would have to be taken in residence at a Training College.

Academic Preparation

As regards the academic preparation of teachers for elementary schools, one observes the beginning of a recognition of the need for secondary education for such teachers. The generally prevailing situation in the area has been that most elementary teachers have not obtained either an Oversea School Certificate, or an Ordinary Level General Certificate of Education in a sufficient number of subjects, or a local certificate regarded as substantially comparable, any of which would be recognized as indicative of a certain standard of achievement at the secondary level. In the area as a whole probably not more than 10 percent of those entering a Teacher-Training College hold such a certificate, and in most territories the majority have not attended an academic secondary school.

This situation is changing, however. In Barbados only those who have the General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level) in a requisite number of subjects are accepted as elementary school teachers and admitted to Training College (a reflection, perhaps, of the fact that an estimated 15 percent of the Barbados population of secondary school age receive an academic secondary education, as compared, for example, with an estimated 1 percent in Jamaica). In Trinidad in 1957 about one-half of those entering training colleges had gained the School Certificate or its equivalent. In Antigua new regulations put into effect in 1955 provided that all new recruits for the teaching profession must pass the Cambridge Oversea School Certificate Examination or its equivalent before taking the external qualifying examination for a teaching certificate or being eligible to enter the local Training College. The 1957 Regional Teacher Training Conference recommended that all students admitted to Teacher-Training Colleges should have a good educational background, including at least the School Certificate or its equivalent, and the trend appears to be toward this goal in the area generally.

5 Colony of Antigua-Barbuda, Report on the Education Department for the Years 1955-1957. (mimeog.), p. 38.

One obvious result of the beginnings of this trend is that those entering training colleges may represent different degrees of achievement in academic or general education. In the Leeward Islands, for example, which are served largely by a training college in Antigua, those entering from the latter island are now required to have the School Certificate or its equivalent, while those entering from the other islands in 1958-59 were not, and were required to make up this "deficiency" in the course of their training college program and examinations. Likewise, in Trinidad, Jamaica, and British Guiana in 1958-59, the situation was similar in varying degrees.

The "equivalent" of the School Certificate, a term which has been used several times in referring to the academic preparation of those entering Training Colleges, bears some discussion at this point. The "equivalent" of a School Certificate can, of course, be an Ordinary Level General Certificate of Education, in a comparable number of subjects. In a number of territories of the British Caribbean it may also refer to the recent innovation of a certificate granted on the basis of an examination set by the local education authorities, usually as part of the external teacher-training system for those who have not attended a regular secondary school. It is regarded by education officials in the given territory as indicating achievement comparable to that represented by the attaining of a School Certificate.

Reference has been made to the granting of such a certificate in Trinidad and Antigua. Mention is also made in this connection of the examinations begun in 1954 in Jamaica leading to the First and Second Jamaica Certificates of Education. It was the purpose of these examinations ultimately to replace, at a more advanced level of requirements, the aforementioned three Jamaica Local Examinations. The second of the two examinations for the Jamaica Certificate of Education is regarded by its supporters as bearing comparison, subject for subject, with the School Certificate examination. The two Jamaica Certificates of Education are also accepted as the basis for further education or training in certain other fields.

In the matter of preparation for the School or GCE certificate examinations, the role of the Training College itself should not be overlooked for the majority in the area generally who do not have such a certificate on entrance. Its curriculum usually includes a good percentage of academic subjects, and those without a secondary education certificate are encouraged to obtain it by the end of the Training College program. In Jamaica, which has not had such a requirement for admission to Training Colleges, one recent estimate was that 60 to 70 percent obtained the certificate by the time of completion of Training College. Thus, the Training Colleges, in addi

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