The Anguilla Community College (ACC) is proud to announce that its second cohort of primary level educators have achieved qualified teacher status. The twelve teachers who most recently qualified are Vanicea Fleming, Raemisha Petty, Tiffany Gumbs, Laurie Connor, Susan Gumbs, Shari Hodge, Chrishauna Hughes, Jonesha Richardson, Keri Richardson, Trevis Rouse, Rhonda Samuels and Jeriesha Webter.
These teachers began their programme in September 2016 and despite a delay in 2017 after hurricane Irma, have now successfully completed the Associate Degree in Education at the Primary Level (ADE Primary). The ADE Primary offered at the ACC is approved and issued through the Eastern Caribbean Joint Board of Teacher Education (JBTE) which comprises Ministries of Education, the School of Education at the UWI Cave Hill Campus, Teachers’ Associations and national colleges across the Eastern Caribbean (southernmost from St Vincent and the Grenadines stretching North to Anguilla).
Many refer to teaching as the ‘noble profession’ which paraphrases the quote by Indian statesman A. P. J. Abdul Kalam that, “Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual.” In other words, teaching is a serious profession for which practitioners ought to prepare. Ideally, and this is the case in countries such as the US, Canada, the UK and Europe, teachers must qualify before they begin in the classroom. Though Anguilla does not yet have an established, pre-service, teacher training approach, the Department of Education, through its Teacher Quality Policy, recognizes that the caliber and training of teachers is critical for the effective education of Anguilla’s future; namely its primary and secondary schoolchildren.
The ACC provides training for educators in the Early Childhood Sector, Secondary Level and Primary Level. Initially the Department of Education administrated the ADE Primary programme internally, utilizing staff to train primary teachers, but this responsibility was transferred to the ACC in 2014 when the first cohort of teachers began the ADE Primary there. The College is currently running its third cohort for Primary Education.
Every school year, the Department of Education recruits Teachers and Teaching Assistants at the Primary level to fill positions that become vacant. Often these are fifth and sixth formers who have the prerequisites to become teacher trained (i.e. 5 CXC CSECs including English, Math, Science and a Humanities subject). Thus the Anguilla Community College offers an opportunity for young persons completing Fifth Form or Sixth Form to have a competitive edge when applying for teaching positions if they are already enrolled in the teacher training programme at the ACC.
For more information about our teacher training programmes, how to achieve the prerequisites to become a trained teacher or schedule an academic counselling session, call the ACC at 498-8395, Whatsapp 476-8396 or email info@acc.edu.ai.
– Press Release
