Thru Novel Lenses! New Vision New Perspectives New Ideas New Directions For the New World! Futuring Sustainable Development in the Post Pandemic Planet From Pre School to Policy Making
The theme allows us to reconsider the
role of museums and what is needed to reposition ours to become a key driver of
social and economic transformation through enhancing and protecting cultural
diversity, natural history, sharing conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity
and expanding economic bases of income and employment generation. It is time we begin thinking of
creating, investing and budgeting for a state of the art museum for Trinidad
and Tobago. Our heritage has certainly outgrown the walls of the existing Royal
Victoria Institute on upper Frederick Street in Port of Spain, established as a
museum of science and natural history in 1892.
While the Royal Victoria
Institute building remains iconic to our history and heritage and indeed as the
headquarters of our national museum system, it has insufficient space to accommodate
the rich array of national heritage.
As we move to develop a satellite of
associated museums that embraces The Museum of the City of Port of Spain, Fort
San Andreas in South Quay, and engage with community museums, a state of the
art museum will allow for the kind of walk-in exhibition spaces, interactive engagement,
digital displays that modern publics expect of an institution bearing the title
of national museum. For this we also require enhanced training and capacity
building of human resources as well as substantial investments that demonstrate
recognition for the inherent value that will accrue towards strengthening
heritage as an industry and provide spin off advantages of social inclusion and
aligned social, economic and political stability.
This NMAG Board is committed to
advancing understanding and appreciation of a museum as the catalyst of the cultural
heritage sector, with a substantive place in economic diversification, employment
and generation . A museum as a facility which through its displays researches,
interprets and represent a society is crucial to conveying national identity,
as it is in educating, interacting and engaging not just national and
international population, provoking and interrogating as well as articulating,
refining and pointing to points of progress.As we prepare for the 2015 General Elections,
it might be prudent for political parties contending for leadership of Trinidad
and Tobago over the next five years to include proposals to harness and
leverage the heritage of Trinidad and Tobago in their manifestos and hustings’
proclamation so as to enhance the timbre of debate and build awareness among
the population to meet expectations for a more substantial development agenda.We look forward to partnering with the
corporate and industrial sectors as well as among NGOs and academia to help
build and develop the National Museum and Art Gallery into an institution in
which Trinidad and Tobago, its diaspora and indeed the global community can
take pride and we look forward to welcoming you to the displays at the Royal
Victoria Institute. With Warmest
Wishes for a Happy Museum Day. Subscribe and visit www.krisrampersad.com
Dr
Kris Rampersad
Chair, National
Museum and Art Gallery.
Photo Above: Chair of the National Museum and Art Gallery, Dr Kris Rampersad (right) meets with staff of the National Museum and Art Gallery and engage in discussions on improving the delivery of services at the Museum. Photo courtesy Rubadiri Victor, NMAG board member.
Photo: Dr Kris Rampersad, Chair of the National
Museum and Art Gallery assisted by lifecoach Philip Rochford leads a retreat of
the Board of the National Museum and Art Gallery at the conference room of the National
Botanic Garden The new board met to plan vision, mission and strategic directions
for NMAG. Photo Courtesy Dr Marsha Pearce.
Dear Lizzie
The value of #life, the value of #freedom -what dollar value could be put on that ... trillions? The skewing of our sense of value to dollars and cents based on the value on the labour market is itself demeaning and dimunitive as replicated in the calculations for #reparations. How damaged have become our sense of values and those who lead us to warped space when the real calculations shoe... more in #LettersToLizzie @krisramp @lolleaves
Remarks at Leading for Literacy and Numeracy phase 2 launch by Dr Kris Rampersad
Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO,
Trinidad and Tobago Representative on UNESCO Executive Board
A recent IDB report that notes the sad fact ‘that too many Caribbean students finish primary school without acquiring levels of literacy and numeracy sufficient to equip them to succeed in secondary school or in an employment market that is increasingly complex and competitive.”
We who are inside
the system have known that for a long time and that no country—not even one
rich in natural resources, as that report notes —can flourish without a
population so educated.
That report also
notes UNESCO’s definition of literacy as the ability to identify, understand,
interpret, create, communicate, compute, and use printed and written materials
associated with varying contexts. UNESCO recognises that literacy is both a
right in itself and an instrument for achieving other rights and that it is
impossible to separate the right to literacy from the right to education.
That IDB report on
literacy and numeracy in the Caribbean takes its definition of numeracy from the
Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers: that to be numerate is to use
mathematics effectively to meet the demands of life at home, in paid work, and
for participation in community and civic life. Numeracy is to mathematics as
literacy is to language. It states:
From these definitions emerge a picture of literacy
and numeracy as the fundamentals of education and a means for social and human
development. Such definitions are contextual and influenced by the practical
necessities of life. In the area of literacy, for example, terms such as
functional literacy, cultural literacy, quantitative literacy, and computer
literacy, among others, have emerged in recent years, a direct result of attempts
to articulate the higher demands of literacy imposed by contemporary society.
Similarly, what sufficed for numeracy 20 years ago cannot be adequate today.
The common calculator now includes keys for functions that were previously only
understood by scientists and engineers.(IDB Regional Policy Dialogue on Education: Literacy and Numeracy in the Caribbean
Report )
When the Trinidad
and Tobago National Commission of UNESCO met to consider this project,
following the mandate of the Commission’s President, the Minister of Education,
Dr Tim Gopeesingh, in our general
discussions there were numerous examples from commissioners about the various
challenges they faced in learning mathematics – ‘math anxiety’ among them,
which could itself fill a story book.
I had my story,
too, about learning to read and learning mathematics.
As a child I read
everything I lay my eyes on. Everything, no exaggeration. Reading materials
were limited in the country districts, you know. My reading materials came from
signboards passing by on a drive, to labels on cans, and of course books
whether they were mine or of others, whether they were text book, story books,
newspapers. One of my earliest memories as a preteen is jumping up and down in
frustration for want of reading matter as I had read everything on the bookshelf
which largely contained text books from agriscience, science to social studies
etc of my elder siblings. The nearest
library was miles away in the nearest town and inaccessible until I started
high school.
My story of
mathematics is a different one. I could calculate almost any sum or
measurements in my head – my father who was a part time market vendor loved
taking me to the market because I calculated costs of his whole sale and retail
goods and the special discounts he wanted to offer to special customers
instantly in my head. Calculations of weights and measurements, distances, and
the like in my head came easily.
And yet I
struggled with text book maths and for exams it took extra effort to make the
grades.
I - what we call
crammed - for my O-Level mathematics exam with an intense focus in the few
weeks before the exam. I gritted my teeth on the deadline crunch and made out a
lesson plan of the different modules and mapped out a path to learning each and
the formulas associated with them. That meant, actually having to write out in
words, and create a story around each formula and their connected components -
for real. I turned my maths text into a story book: and that’s how those remote
and alien formulas jumped to life, and made sense to me so I would remember
them in an exam room.
Mathematical
formulas were not the English language, like my story books, so I needed to
dedicate special time with lots of coffee at exam crunch to interpret formulas
into the language that I knew. I came to that understanding that I needed to
understand mathematics in the context of some correlation to reading. If I
hadn’t, I could have easily fallen through the cracks too, because text book
teaching did not provide that approach I needed, and which perhaps can also
account for many of our so called failure at maths - that students’ approaches
to learning mathematics, as with learning language can vary, so teaching methods
and tools must incorporate the kind of variety we are trying to include in the
teaching of literacy.
The problems and
challenges we have uncovered in the pilot leading for literacy programme may be
very applicable and relevant and similar to what is needed for numeracy.
My story of
learning is just one such story and I’m sure is like one which as educators you
might have heard several times over.
As we embark on
this, the second part of the National Commission for UNESCO Leading for Literacy
– and now Leading for Numeracy project
I have a few
things I want to lay on the table for your consideration:
1.That
this project offers an ideal opportunity to explore the possible points of
intersection between the challenges we face in teaching language, the English
language included – which we erroneously consider our first language, but which
educators are now discovering need to be taught as a foreign language and
teaching the language of mathematics, which may also be considered a foreign
language: that can help bring text book learning closer home to the applied,
oral traditions approach that is more natural to our people.
My analogy of the
need for literacy in numeracy is just a component of that general right to
literacy recognised by UNESCO which precedes the right to information: about a
decade ago some of us in the civil society movement fought to have that right
to information recognised as a basic human right across the Commonwealth and UN
systems.
All of these
rights now converge in the computerized age in which we function: HTML/Computer
language is an amalgam of competencies in numeracy, literacy and everything in
between and has brought startlingly home to us the need for unification of the
humanities and the sciences – the former represented in literacy – the latter
in numeracy: a separation that has for long been perpetuated by our school
system, in the creation of subject grouping that separate those in the arts from
those in the sciences and which still persist in terms of the awards and
scholarship systems.
O we must consider
the areas of convergence in the teaching of literacy and numeracy: as not to be
treated as separate competencies, but intertwined – and in treating here both
numeracy and literacy together, we have in this room the beginnings of the
formula to do so.
So now I want to
leave with you a little bit of homework: some numerical calculations that came
to me in reviewing the distance travelled with the leading for Literacy pilot
exercise still in progress: 40 principals and 80 teachers trained in literacy
and numeracy; and class loads of infant 1s and 2s receiving their badges ‘I am
learning to read’ and their parents engaged also in the parenting for literacy
initiative.
Some of the
feedback from our trained educator leaders were: Students have been making great progress with Letter Recognition and
Sounds of Letters. There are a few struggling along, mostly the ones who never
attended preschool. They are still adjusting to school. Learning is taking
place, some who were answering in one word sentences are now describing what is
happening in pictures. Oral Language has improved. Students are enjoying the
singing, actions and dancing …
The teacher did a concept lesson on the letter m. The
objectives of the lesson were achieved. The children were able to give the
sound of the letter m with the motion and gave words that begin with that
letter sound. They were also able to identify pictures and words with that
letter sound as their evaluation. The children were also able to trace and
write the letter. The teacher also integrated maths in the lesson using the
thematic approach. As a follow up, the
teacher was advised to build a wordwall with pictures and matching words of the
letter m. Another follow up will be
using m words in sentence strips for reading.
The students are visibly having fun as they learn!
Their laughter and sometimes giggles must make one smile.
Even those with whom we could not have gotten through last year are showing
some progress. Unfortunately their progress is a bit slower than the younger
children. All however are saying the sounds, doing the actions and completing
the written assignments.
The teachers also continue to add resources to develop their model classrooms.
The teachers know what they are doing and are given autonomy in their classes
since they also have had to struggle with slow learners, Curriculum Rewrite
training and a multitude of other challenges.
But as I always tell them, challenges make us stronger and better!
There are
challenges too. Another comment from among those trained:
We have two first year classes with a total of
forty-eight students (25 and 23 boys). My teachers are working overtime with
the students. The class with twenty-five students seems to be so cramped and
the students are restless with the humidity. My heart goes out to these two
committed teachers so I visit regularly and have discussions, and offer
suggestions of encouragement. In both classes there are five year old students
whose developmental levels are not ready for primary school. There are many
individual differences within the classes and there are even cases where
parents have already given up on their sons. Grandparents are forced to take
the role of the biological parents and for various reasons. Some of them are
unable to cope with these energetic grandsons. I have, however, taken the names
of such parents and have been chatting with them on the phone appealing with
them to assist their sons in the observed areas of weakness e.g., hand
exercises to develop his motor skills, forming his letters with the hook, proper
way to hold a pencil, correct way to hold his exercise book, revising the
letter sounds etc. The teachers have even observed bullies within their classes
so I have contacted those parents via phone and have asked them to visit for
further discussions. Despite the various challenges, my teachers continue to be
passionate, working extremely hard, and I am walking the journey with them for
we want this experiment to be successful. The school disruptions are regular
but we are trying to cope and at the same time encouraging our parents to work
with us. With our sale of "milkies and freezies" for the month we
have purchased a pack of laminating envelopes to laminate and preserve our
letters and pictures, pretty expensive though but we are hoping to reap the
benefits of our sacrifice in the future. God bless, hang in their colleagues
and we all will be proud of our efforts!
The spin-off
benefits are yet to come when these infant ones and twos impact on their
parents and peers and siblings and communities.
Another comment:
The year-1 pupils showed the ability to correct their peers
if any letter was sounded incorrectly. The Year 1 students were very eager to
offer sentences when called upon.
That’s what we at
the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO did with around half a
million dollars, one quarter from UNESCO and the rest from the Ministry of
Education and various sponsors: 40 principals, 80 teachers, loads and loads of
infant ones and two and their parents learning to become leaders and readers.
For this, Leading
for Literacy and Numeracy for Secondary Schools, the second component of the
programme, our budget is just over one million dollars (TT). Your home work is
to calculate what may be achieved with this million more; and then further on,
what we could achieve with 34 million, or 36 million, for literacy and numeracy;
and then with the additional permutations of all these infant one and twos
passing on their learnings and their excitement and enthusiasm for reading to
siblings, parents and peers in the communities, for not just 2250 boys but several
communities and families and the permutations and spin off benefits ofthat.
That’s the multiplication
we need to do: from an investment of just about half a million that’s what we
got, and that is only in the preliminary stages, and within just about one year
– using existing infrastructure, which, I note from your reports, are plagued
with numerous problems and challenges of their own. On which note, might
I add that it continues to puzzle me – and perhaps those from Chaguanas can
help me understand the logic and calculations in this: when does a court house
become more important than a library? To my mind, it
seems if we had more libraries, we will need less court houses, not so? Isn’t
that the simple arithmetic?
As curriculum
officers, principals and teachers being taught to lead for literacy, take these
learnings and take charge of your communities. That was the challenge I threw out
to the first guinea pigs of our project when we launched around this time last
year, August 2013. And now I challenge you to, too, take charge! Lead. Return
us to the time when the school was the centre of the community and principals
and teachers were indeed respected heads and leaders of our society.
With that, I leave
you to your homework. Happy learnings, and I look forward to return at the end
of this week to witness the results of this exercise then, and beyond,
I thank you. August 18, 2014 Port of Spain, Trinidad