A section of the Catholic College of Mandeville's 2008 graduating class. - Photo by Goerge Henry

MANDEVILLE, Manchester:

Just fewer than 200 trained teachers graduated from the Catholic College of Mandeville in Manchester to give the 21,000-strong profession a significant boost.

The teachers, 198 to be exact, who are all primary educators, graduated from the college's diploma and bachelor's degree programmes at ceremony held at the Kendal Conference Centre on Sunday.

The cadre of graduates, 116 diploma-trained and 82 bachelor's degree recipients, formed the seventh batch of students to leave the Catholic institution over the last 10 years.

President of the college, Dr Una O'Connor, in giving the report for the academic year 2007-2008, said the group of graduates formed the largest from the institution since it started training educators in 1992.

She said there had been significant growth in the college's offerings, with the accreditation of its primary diploma programme by the University Council of Jamaica, as well as with the addition of its bachelor of education degree programme. The improvements, she explained, fell in line with the Ministry of Education's thrust for all primary-school teachers to have at least a first degree.

New dimension

O'Connor further stated that the college had also added a new dimension to what it offered, as it also started a master's degree programme in teaching and learning in July of last year. That programme, she added, was in conjunction with St Mary's University of Minnesota in the United States of America.

The college also acquired a nine-acre property from the Catholic Diocese of Mandeville at Williamsfield in the parish for the construction of a new campus.

According to the college's president, the architectural drawings were already in place for the new campus and preparations were being made to deal with the parish's approval process. She also said efforts were being made to acquire the necessary finances to proceed with the construction of buildings.

Dr Aggrey Irons of the Bellevue Hospital in Kingston, who addressed the graduates, charged them to recognise that their mission did not end at graduation or when they left the profession because they should have passed on what they had learnt to others.

He called on them to remember that every child was theirs and belonged to God.

- George Henry