MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Nostalgia filled the air as the Church Teachers’ College family sat down to lunch recently to mark the start of the institution’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Those of older vintage recalled the early years of what was then the Mandeville Teachers’ College – established with the “blessing and authority” of the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica.

At the start in September, 1965, the teacher training college had 75 students, including 25 pre-service teachers in the primary programme and 50 at the secondary level.

Today the college boasts a student population of over 600. Teachers are trained in secondary, primary and early childhood education. There is an evening institute which prepares community members for Caribbean Examinations Council papers. There are “state-of-the-art” computer labs which serve not just the school population but also the community.

In addition to its campus in Mandeville, Church Teachers’ College has opened its first off-site campus in Brown’s Town, St Ann.

Church Teachers’ College also has a prized partnership with Temple University in the USA offering bachelor’s degree in primary and early childhood education, a master’s degree in educational administration and a doctorate in education administration.

Principal of Church Teachers’ College, Dr Garth Anderson now sees university status as the next logical step, “the next level” as the institution moves to reposition to deal with a rapidly changing world.

He refused to give timelines, but told his audience at the poolside on the college’s campus “that next level cannot be too far away. The next level has to be that university status. But we recognise that it is a process, not something that will come overnight…”

Upgrading of infrastructure and programmes would be crucial in the process to that next level, he said.

Infrastructural development will include a $150-million “state of the art science centre” for which ground will be broken this academic year, Anderson said. He made it clear the Anglican Church would be expected to play a big role in its construction.

“We don’t have the money, but the church must demonstrate that it has faith… so we are going to break ground for that. We have the drawings (architectural drawing) and we know where we are going to put it…,” Anderson said.

Also, the principal spoke of “discussions with a very important partner in education to get properties and set up a nursing school… we are pursuing that with all vigour because we need something like that”.

The idea would not just be to serve student-teachers but to “serve the community and to diversify what we are offering,” Anderson said.

In terms of educational programmes, the principal said, staff members were upgrading skills and competencies.

“About seven members of staff now are doing their doctoral programmes, we have two members who have their doctoral degrees, because we are repositioning,” he said.

Academic collaboration would be deepened with Temple University and also the University of the West Indies.

He stressed that “offerings” would have to be diversified “outside of teacher education”. However in a question-and-answer session with journalists, Anderson said teacher training would remain a core responsibility when university status is achieved.

“We will not move away from our original mission,” he said.

However, Church Teachers’ College would be moving to assertively ensure that students are “equipped with skills and competencies for them to operate in different areas, different fields…”

In effect, this was not new, he said, since teachers’ colleges, including Church Teachers’ College, had graduates operating in virtually every field.

“Teacher training historically has been the poor man’s university,” Anderson claimed. “That’s where poor people go to get an education, not necessarily to become a teacher, (but also) because of the holistic type of training we provide,” he added.

Nadine Leachman, regional director for the Ministry of Education, reminded teacher training colleges of the urgent need to ensure that teachers graduate with the correct attitude.

“We are still experiencing teachers who are focused on collecting the cheque and nothing else,” she said.

Leachman encouraged the effort to “reposition” training in terms of industry, economic, and global demands.

“I can see in this college the effort to link what you do with industry. At times we have to revisit what we do, it is useless our students go back to the classroom to teach as if it was 20 years ago. We have to look at (repositioning) so that connection can be made with demands of our society” and wider world, she said.

The regional director also reiterated the need for greater collaboration between colleges and the Ministry of Education in the teaching of mathematics. The subject, she said, remained an area of great concern, despite “incremental” improvements in exam results.