HEMISPHERIC PROJECT TEACHER EDUCATION TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO SENATOR HAZEL MANNING

PROJECT TITLE 1. RESPONSES TO THE CHALLENGE OF IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION[1], INITIAL FORMATION, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF TEACHERS IN THE COUNTRIES IN THE HEMISPHERE[1] [1] Questions to be answered in the project proposal will address: the new selection process and who will be responsible for determining this process (i.e. teachers, local officers, or national ministries).

SUB-REGIONAL COORDINATORS REGIONS SUB-REGIONAL COORDINATOR Andean RegionEcuador MercoSurBolivia Central AmericaEl Salvador CaribbeanTrinidad and Tobago North AmericaMexico

PRIORITY AREA Education is a priority area in the Strategic Plan for Partnership for Development of the AICD. Teacher Education is a recommendation from the III Summit of the Americas and the II Meeting of Ministers of Education within the framework of CIDI. CENPE recommended that the FEMCIDI funds finance multilateral projects.

PROJECT JUSTIFICATION High levels of under-achievement High levels of repetition Low productivity of students Poor teacher performance Low teacher prestige and social value Inadequate salaries for teachers Training is not linked to improvements in professional performance.

PROJECT GOAL To enhance and improve the quality of teacher education with established systematized hemispheric goals.

PROJECT PURPOSE To establish regionally standardized Teacher Education programs. To standardize recruitment and selection policies throughout the regions To standardize a Performance Management System To implement on-going professional development programs.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES YEAR 1 –Identify and systematize consolidated experiences in recruitment and selection, pre-service training, professional development and teacher evaluation coherent with a framework that identifies competencies, capacities and performance standards for sub-regions.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES YEARS 2 and 3 –Evaluate the framework and sub-regional goals. –Develop and implement pilot projects in pre- service education, on-going professional development,evaluation and certification. –Prepare virtual courses that benefit a minimum of 1000 teacher educators and use the existing infrastructure in the OAS (EDUSAT, Educative Portal of the Americas, Institute of Connectivity of the Americas.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES YEAR 4 –Organize an Inter-American Forum on Teacher Education to analyze the results of consolidated experiences. –Propose hemispheric goals

BUDGET A detailed budget for the project must be worked out by each region and submitted to the coordinator by August 22, This is to be done using the Logical Framework.

SUSTAINABILITY AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE PROJECT Training of Master Teachers, Heads and Deans to: –Facilitate the induction process with new teachers –Ensure institutionalization of teachers’ new learning. Establish the relationship between and complementary support for existing projects and the new hemispheric project. Establish a system of support for teachers to allow them to access training.

POTENTIAL RISKS If collaboration is not developed with already existing teacher education programs, implementation will be limited. Existing projects are in no way related to the hemispheric project.

REGIONAL COORDINATOR Each coordinator will shape the project in accordance with their capacities in terms of human resources, infrastructure, access to other working teams, financial resources for operational expenses and research done on the field.

SUPPORT OF COUNTRIES Each country desirous of working with the project must send official letters of support to the Inter-American Committee for Cooperation and Development.

TECHNICAL SECRETARIAT WILL: Support the documentation of experiences in the hemisphere to facilitate the transference of lessons learned. Develop virtual spaces in coordination with the Educational Portal of the Americas to support the training activities for various educational players in the project.

TECHNICAL SECRETARIAT WILL: Organize virtual forums to facilitate coordination and dialogue among different participants in the development of the project. Support the evaluation process.