TWELVE master’s students and two lecturers from the University of the West Indies’ (UWI’s) School of Education at the Mona campus will this summer get the opportunity to travel to England as part of a programme intended to develop math and science teachers.

The programme, dubbed the “Creating Champion Teachers” programme, is covered under a memorandum of understanding created by Tony Sewell, a consultant at Reading University, and the UWI Department of Educational Studies headed by Dr Beverley Bryan.

“It seeks to bring teachers from Jamaica to the UK for two weeks and after that (provide them with) online support (for a year), training them to be advanced skill teachers in maths and science,” Sewell told Career & Education of the programme, which is to run for five years, benefiting a different group of students annually.

“This means they will be teacher role models, not only for their own schools, but a number of local ones. Basically, we are training the trainers. This model has worked in the UK and we want to roll it out in Jamaica,” he added.

Sewell has said, in the interim, that there was no question of the value of the programme.

“There is real need to improve math and science in our schools. This year’s Grade Four Numeracy Test (results) were really bad. It means that we now have a generation of Jamaican children struggling in basic mathematics. The Champions programme is a strategic approach to promote good practice throughout Jamaica’s classrooms,” said Sewell, who runs the charity Generating Genius, which uses the sciences to help boys into university.

“We need to teach mathematics in a different way. Our children (particularly girls) find maths boring and too difficult. We need to dispel this myth. Our children think this way because their teachers also think in the same way. We need to train teachers who are confident and knowledgeable in their subject and are able to communicate this to young people,” added the man whose role with the programme is that of facilitator of behalf of Reading University.

Bryan agreed.

“We are really giving them (teachers) exposure to what is happening in a top university in the UK,” she said, acknowledging that the group from the UWI would be exposed to new techniques and theories in the teaching of mathematics and science.

The students and lecturers’ trip to the UK is costing about $2.5 million — a bill the University of Reading is footing, at least initially.

“We are seeking funds from the private sector and NGOs for the future,” noted Sewell, who has taught at Knox College and done work at the UWI.