SIXTY educators from early childhood, primary and tertiary institutions are expected to benefit from a national mathematics workshop that’s set for May 27 to 29, 2025 at The Mico University College in St Andrew.

Representatives from teachers’ colleges and mathematics specialists from the Ministry of Education are also expected to attend the workshop organised by the Gore Family Foundation in collaboration with The Mico and the Council for Creative Education (CCE) Finland.

According to the Gore Foundation, the workshop, being held under the theme ‘Education Transformation: Elevating Mathematics Teaching and Learning’, will equip educators with transformative, innovative, evidence-based strategies.

“Participating educators will be monitored after their completion of the workshop to assess how effectively they are able to implement the tools that they learn in the various learning environments in which they work,” the foundation stated in a news release.

The workshop will commence with an opening ceremony at Enos Nuttall Lecture Theatre on The Mico campus on May 27. The ceremony will feature addresses from distinguished leaders in education, including The Mico University College President Dr Asburn Pinnock; Christine Gore, executive director of the Gore Family Foundation; Professor Neville Ying; and Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon.

Joy Baker-Gibson, dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at The Mico, emphasised that the workshop will introduce “innovative instructional strategies to reimagine mathematics teaching in the classroom”.

“A key highlight is the participation of Heramb Kulkarni, a renowned expert and director at CCE Finland who has trained close to 15,000 educators globally. Kulkarni will present globally validated methodologies that have enhanced mathematics education worldwide,” said the foundation, which invested $3 million in the staging of the workshop.

“The Gore Family Foundation’s enduring partnership and steadfast support for The Mico is deeply personal, as my grandfather was a Miconian,” said Phillip Gore, executive chairman of Gore Developments Limited.

“In 2012, our foundation decided to donate $1 million towards a mathematics and science conference being held at Mico and developed the James F Gore Memorial Scholarship in memory of my grandfather. This scholarship sponsors promising students in Mico’s Pre-University Men’s Programme in an effort to help to respond to the shortage of male teachers in Jamaica,” Gore added.

“We also started the Clarice May Gore Memorial Scholarship at Mico in 2014, which sponsors aspiring early childhood educators. Our support continues to increase with new initiatives like this national mathematics workshop as we continue to do all that we can to provide better educational opportunities and outcomes for all Jamaicans,” said Gore.

The foundation noted that Mico encourages qualified secondary school graduates to pursue careers in mathematics education as it seeks to continuously enhance the skills, strategies, and expertise of Jamaica’s teachers of mathematics.

The foundation said that like The Mico, it strongly believes that “we must be willing to face the reality that our nation is facing a mathematics crisis and be open to looking beyond the traditional methods currently relied upon to try to fix this”.

“We see this mathematics workshop as a starting point in bridging the gap that exists between teaching and learning the subject across Jamaican classrooms,” the Gore Foundation said.