Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter
Thousands of the nation's public-school teachers are barely computer literate. A survey commissioned by e-Learning Jamaica Company Limited (e-ljam) last year showed that more than 60 per cent of secondary-school teachers were in dire need of computer training suited to novices.
If the survey, which was presented in questionnaire format, had been a test, most of the teachers would have received a failing grade because approximately 86 per cent of respondents indicated that they needed additional information and communications technology (ICT) training.
The Education Ministry corroborated the findings of the study on a larger scale, admitting that technological inadequacies existed among teachers at every level.
"Needs analyses have been conducted at the different levels of the system which reveal that there is the need to provide opportunities for teachers to be equipped with the skills and competencies to use ICT as a tool for enhancing teaching and learning," Dr Mary Campbell, assistant chief education officer in the Professional Development Unit at the Education Ministry admits.
In addition, Robert Philips, education specialist at e-Learning Jamaica Company Limited, tells The Sunday Gleaner that the majority of teachers surveyed were below the most basic level.
"Most of the teachers, as they have admitted, are off the scale. By their admission, the main thing they can do is a little word processing. They are at entry, entry, entry level," he says.
Philips explained that novices, skilled workers and fully skilled workers with supervisory competences were the three basic types of computer users.
"Ideally, every teacher should be at level two," he states, explaining that the survey's purpose was to ascertain the computer-literacy levels of the nation's high-school teachers, who are critical to the success of the State's multibillion-dollar e-learning initiative.
One of the major aims of this high-tech programme, which will marry traditional classroom instruction with some of the latest technological advances, is to improve passes at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate level.
Data from the survey were subsequently used to establish the different levels of training that are necessary for the teachers to play their part in the multibillion-dollar venture.
The Teacher ICT Training Needs Assessment Survey commissioned by e-ljam was conducted in April 2007 among 600 teachers from 20 high schools. The tutors were selected from five -subject areas - mathematics, English, information technology, chemistry and biology.
"They were very open about their competencies or deficiencies. Eighty per cent would feel challenged by a task more complex than opening and using a word-processing document," Philips says.
He argues that the results of the survey validate the huge sums earmarked for teacher training under the e-learning programme. "Collectively, it established that the US$2.6 million expenditure in the teacher ICT training contract was justifiable."
According to Philips, many teachers are computer illiterate because they simply do not have access to a computer.
"More than 60 per cent of the teachers surveyed need level one training. Another 25 per cent is only in need of level two training, while the remaining 15 per cent will be getting level three training," he says.
The teacher-training component under the e-learning programme has commenced and some teachers have already received their HEART certification. The training began last July and is expected to end in 2010.
