DREDRIA Bailey, a teacher of 12 years at Morant Bay Primary School, is the holder of the highest GPA from the batch of 2011/2012 online post-graduate scholars at the University of the West Indies (UWI) School of Education.

Bailey, who pursued the online master’s degree in teacher education and teacher development, said it is a course she would recommend to anyone who wants to further their studies in the discipline.

She graduated with honours and was awarded recently at the 2013 UWI School of Education Graduate

Research Seminar & Awards Ceremony at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge.

“You cannot help yourself if you yourself aren’t developed,” Bailey said. “I have been a teacher for the past 12 years, and I felt that I needed to develop my craft to continue with teacher education and development, so I pursued the programme.”

Copping the top award for online students, she said, is a surprise she never imagined would have come her way.

“I’ve never really kept check on what my average was. All I knew was that I was there to do my best, and that is what I did,” Bailey told Career & Education.

“I had fun! Some people may take this the hard way, but I literally laughed my way through this programme. I had excellent tutors. I had excellent staff to work with. I had excellent support from my online peers. Truth be told, I think my academic peers were the ones keeping check on my academic performance more than I was,” she added.

Bailey, who is also an adjunct teacher at the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning, told Career & Education that pursuing the online master’s programme, which was originally offered face-to-face only by the university, had several benefits.

“The hours were suitable for me. The content and the programme were manageable. The only thing I had no control over was the Internet,” Bailey said.

Asked how she balanced her studies with her career and her other responsibilities, she said it took planning and good organisational habits.

“Balancing was easy. I am a planner. I am well organised. It was difficult to transition, but I just knew that this is what I needed to do and I just had to get the task done,” she said.