With more than one million dollars allocated in the Education budget towards teacher development, the Ministry plan to get creative as far as training is concerned.

In a statement to the House of Assembly yesterday, Education Minister, Terry Lister described the challenges facing Education in ensuring that more than 800 teachers receive support in improving teaching techniques.

?For staff development to be meaningful, it has to be delivered across time,? he said.

He said one-offs did not work and training had to be sustained and consistent over a period of time to ensure that the desired practices became a natural part of each teacher?s skill set.

In response, the Ministry is developing a long term plan for staff development which includes summer programmes and overseas training. ?We will continue to use the two days in September, as well as days in November and February for concentrated staff development for teachers participating in on-going training around specific themes.? he said.

But, he said, included in part of the training package over the course of the school year are in-house workshops and for some teachers, site visits to other schools, both locally and abroad.

Teachers will also be invited to attend summer institutions ? where for one or two weeks during their summer vacation, they participate in workshops to hone their skills.

Funding is being made available for teachers to attend conferences overseas to expose them to the latest information, but also to engage in professional dialogue with other practitioners.

When determining what areas of instruction staff needed to be trained, Mr. Lister said on the micro-level each school would be responsible for designing its School Improvement Plan to give specific direction for the education of the students in that building. He said resources are directed towards the proposals that are submitted and accepted.

?In this way individual schools are in a better position to achieve their goals ? which are congruent with the goals of the Ministry,? he said.

On the macro-level, the Ministry had reviewed test data and have conducted observations within classrooms.

As a result, the Ministry has identified specific areas in which staff development and related professional development could prove beneficial.

These areas include improving instruction in literacy (teaching writing skills), improving instruction in mathematics and the infusion of technology.

As far as literacy goes, Mr. Lister said he was satisfied that students were making gains in reading and comprehension.

?However, having examined test results at the primary level from the 2003 Bermuda Education Assessment Programme, and the status of writing at all three levels of the school system, we identified improving writing skills in our students as a priority,? he said.

The Ministry will be assisting teachers on how to teach writing skills and aimed at creating an ever-widening pool of teachers armed with effective instructional strategies and practices in writing. ?We will do this by designating a different target group of teachers for each initial workshop in the first semester and second semester of a given school year with the aim to have all teachers and administrators trained by the spring of 2007,? he said.

Most of the training will be provided locally during each school year, but will include a summer institution that will be held during mid-August this year. As far as the mathematics literacy project is concerned, the Minister hired two mathematics advisors to work with primary schools.

Steve Smith and Keisha Douglas worked with teachers who have learnt more interactive approaches to teaching and developing effective classroom assessment practices.

One thing Mr. Lister feels passionately about is technology. Many students in Bermuda are conversant with computer technology by the time they enter formal education at primary school. Mr. Lister told the House that it was important to ensure that teachers did not miss the opportunity to integrate technology into as many aspects of instruction as possible.

To that end, teachers at senior level will receive training on how to use graphic calculators, LCD Projectors, video conferencing equipment and digital microscopes and telescopes.

?We need to ensure that our teachers remain a few steps ahead of our students,? he said.