DUNCANS, Trelawny – The Jamaica Association of Education Officers (JAOE) yesterday launched its website and journal at the organisation’s 18th annual professional development conference at the Starfish Resort here.

Chief education officer, Jasper Lawrence, called the launch of the journal – entitled The Inspector: a fitting precursor to the establishment of an independent National Education Inspectorate and which will monitor the performance of the entire school system as part of the ministry’s Education Transformation Programme – a timely one.

“This journal is very timely,” Lawrence said. “We hope that in time it will initiate and undertake critique and assessment of the education system, as it is only through self-assessment and examination that we will grow from strength to strength.”

Among the topics covered in the journal, its second edition, are the role of early childhood education in achieving the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal of education for all, the role of vice principals and senior teachers in primary and secondary schools, the multi-grade system and its effect on academic achievement and the effect of teacher’s self concept on performance.

Lawrence said the journal was a fitting companion to the website, www.jaeo.com, which was proof itself that the JAEO was on board with the technology of the day.

“It shows we are with the time,” he told the education officers gathered at the two-day conference, which ends today. “We are in the age of technology, we are online.”

Although not yet functional, the website will provide information on the organisation, its mandate, its officers and pertinent information for officers, teachers and others in the school system.

President for the JAEO, Maureen Dwyer, said the conference, which is being held under the theme ‘Excellence in the Governance of Education: Stakeholders Working Together’, sought to bring the different stakeholders in the education system together to address the various issues as they seek to transform the education system.

“We are building bridges,” she said, “Pulling all the stakeholders together for a stakeholder approach to governance,”

Among the conference presenters were Peter O’Neil, Trinidad and Tobago’s chief education officer, who was scheduled to speak on the experiences and developments in education in the neighbouring Caribbean island. The twin island boasts an adult literacy rate of over 90 per cent according to the government’s official website.

Other presenters included Child Development Agency (CDA) director, Maxine Belague, who was scheduled to speak on child issues in education and Ruth Morris, executive director of the National Council in Education, who was down to address the roles and functions of school boards.

There are 260 education officers across the island who develop, test and supervise the curriculum in public schools, report on the school’s physical condition, and monitor the performance of students and teachers in the system.

According to Dwyer, they are involved in “developing, testing and supervising the curriculum and provide support material such as charts, videos, or anything to support the implementation and sustenance of the curriculum”.

Some of them are also specialists in writing and testing for the examinations under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, including the Grade Four Literacy Test, the Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT) and the crucial Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).