KINGSTON, Jamaica – Retired teachers are being implored to become anchors and symbols of excellence to ground a new generation of students and teachers into the tried, tested and proven concepts of information-sharing, learning and understanding.

Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Information, Robert Morgan, made the call against the background of the development of new technologies, which have changed the way students learn and access information.

He noted that a “new world is coming and unless we in the profession of transferring information are equipped with the knowledge, wisdom and understanding to manage it, we will not be able to equip our students to manipulate it.”

The minister was delivering the main address at a retirement function for 21 educators from Mineral Heights Primary School held at Clarendon Park on April 5.

Minister Morgan, in hailing the honourees, who have together given some 348 years of service, said that retired educators have the knowledge and experience to help teachers and students navigate the new technologies and create a symbiosis with traditional concepts that work in education.

Using his phone to demonstrate how students can get quick and easy answers to any question within seconds, Morgan said “we are going to start asking whether the knowledge that a child is manifesting is real or artificial. Do we need to learn something or just be able to find it in seconds on a phone or other device?”

Morgan said that to date, the Government has issued some 200,000 devices to students that can access the Internet and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and more will be provided to ensure that the approximately 600,000 students in the education system are equipped.

“But are our teachers prepared for 600,000 tablets in our school system? Are they prepared for AI, which is going to short-circuit the system of working out a problem using pencil and paper?” he asked.

“We know our students are innovative and bright and will be manipulating the technology but are you manipulating it too? Do you know how they write; do you know if they wrote the assignment they submitted?” he questioned further.

Morgan noted that while some teachers are ready, others are not, and the retired educators can provide that level of expertise to help them stay ahead of the curve.

“That natural historical understanding of students is what many of you know very well,” he said to the retirees.

He emphasised that the ability of teachers to know their students well cannot be discounted and they should find the best way to transfer that knowledge to the new generation of educators.

“They [students] still need love, care, attention and socialisation; the process of transferring knowledge has not changed,” Morgan argued.

– JIS