CXC in bid to establish regional parent teacher association

THE Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) have announced they plan to establish a Regional Parent Teacher Association (RPTA).

In a release on March 25, CXC said, it will be “an entity designed to unify and strengthen parent-teacher engagement across the Caribbean.”

The release said, “The RPTA will focus on several key objectives, including promoting cooperation among national parent-teacher associations (PTAs), facilitating direct communication with ministries of education and other government authorities, building strategic alliances with governments on educational matters, and advocating for improvements in the regional education system to positively impact the welfare of students, teachers, and parents.”

Over 30 representatives of national and school-based parent-teacher associations (PTAs), and parent advocate groups across the Caribbean, have unanimously agreed to support the initiative, the release said.

At a special stakeholder engagement session convened by CXC earlier this month, the parent representatives welcomed the opportunity to advance relationship-building with the regional examination and awarding body, and to learn more about the governing protocols and mechanisms to channel their ideas into the policy-making levels of CXC.

“There are well-established structures for national parent-teacher associations (NPTAs) to share their ideas with their respective ministries of education, which relate directly to the policy-making mechanisms of CXC,” said Dr Wayne Wesley, the registrar and chief executive officer of CXC.

“CXC is highly supportive of the creation of a regional PTA to create another avenue for parental perspectives to be incorporated into the regional decision and policy-making process. We hold the view that the voice of the parent is critical to the education and learning process,” he said.

Dr Martin Baptiste, CDB’s division chief, social sector told the PTA representatives and advocates that the Bank is highly invested in the human capital development of the region.

“The value of parental input in the regional development process is, without question, of vital importance, and is a key factor in our considerations at the CDB,” said Baptiste.

“We are ready to work with the parental associations of the region to bring about this Regional Parent-Teacher Association as a key step forward, and we are happy to collaborate with CXC to make this happen,” he added.

Baptiste also indicated that CDB, in collaboration with partners, is advancing plans to co-host the Second Transforming Education Symposium and Policy Dialogue in Barbados in September, with a focus on the parents of the region, including the formation and start-up of the regional PTA.

The Symposium and Policy Dialogue will include a training and development workshop for the national PTAs and PTA representatives with the key outcome of formulating a final constitution for the regional PTA from existing work led by the national PTAs of Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Jamaica.

“Our hearts are full for this proposal for a regional PTA, we are elated and ready to bring the work on the constitution to a conclusion,” said Zena Ramatali, the first vice president of the TT National Council of PTAs (TTNPTA) to the online gathering.

Her sentiments were shared by her colleague TTNPTA president, Walter Stewart, Everton Hannam, the general secretary of the National PTA of Jamaica, and other parent representatives at the stakeholder meeting drawn from Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Guyana, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis and the Turks and Caicos Islands.