ST JAMES, Jamaica – Educational leaders are being encouraged to provide adaptive and creative solutions to challenges within the sector, which will also serve to transform their schools into visionary institutions.

To achieve this, Minister of Education and Youth, Fayval Williams, said the stakeholders should pursue leadership development that is competency-based, “relevant, flexible, practical, and peer-oriented, to respond to the existing and emerging exigencies of our schools and school systems”.

She was addressing the graduation ceremony for the 2023 cohort of Church Teachers’ College and the United States-based Temple University Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership programme, at the Holiday Inn Resort in Rose Hall, St James, on Thursday.

Williams noted that much more is being demanded of teachers and principals at all levels now as against 15 to 20 years ago.

“Teachers are now asked to guide students to achieve even greater academic success amid globalisation and the figurative shrinking of our world,” she stated.

Williams further shared that the ministry continues to prioritise improvements in educational leadership, noting that this is both an individual and institutional responsibility.

She said training, such as that offered by Temple University and Church Teachers’ College as well as the Ministry’s National College for Educational Leadership, has been enabling educators to develop their craft, so that they can make meaningful changes to the sector.

Williams, in congratulating the sixteen graduates, expressed confidence that their leadership training will give them the aptitude to become change agents and transformative leaders.

Principal of Church Teachers’ College, Dr Garth Anderson, implored the graduates to seize the opportunity to advance the sector.

“Jamaica’s education sector can only benefit from having leaders who are prepared to respond to the changes, creating and embracing and ensuring greater accountability for student success,” he said.

“In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things,” Dr Anderson added.