INITIATIVE TO EMPOWER LEARNERS AND EDUCATORS BY ACCELERATING THE TRANSITION TO ONLINE METHODS OF EDUCATION.
Saint Lucia’s educators are now better able to integrate pedagogy and the use of technology in their daily teaching as the Embassy of Taiwan continues close collaboration with the Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations.
COVID-19 has transformed the education sector with instruction now demanding online digital tools, devices and applications. The Department of Education has made available to teachers a series of capacity-building courses such as Google Classroom, Moodle and more.
The ICT in Education Development Project funded by the Taiwan Embassy has responded to the Department of Education policies by fostering online learning platform adaptation and empowering teachers with capacity-building resources for making interactive animation, e-books and videos.
Taiwan’s Ambassador to Saint Lucia His Excellency Peter Chen said,” COVID-19 has shown it is imperative that teachers and students are empowered in order for them to reach their aspirations and goals. That empowerment comes from accelerating the transition to e-education and SMART education.”
Ambassador Chen is confident that through e-education, SMART education and the G.I.NET Program, Saint Lucia with assistance from Taiwan will meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Education.
McGarvin James, a teacher at the Stanley Jon Odlum Secondary School believes the newly obtained tools and skills will change the course of education in Saint Lucia.
“We have access through the internet to millions of web pages, assessments, tons of content but we do not have any Caribbean centric context relevant to our culture. The only people that can do that is ourselves. So over the last few years I have been discussing the need for us to become creators of content and not just consumers. This is why I am very happy with the training we as teachers received under the ICT in Education Project because all the tools were content creation tools.”