Teachers urged to take advantage of micro-industry

TEACHERS IN BARBADOS are missing an opportunity to create  a micro-industry by exporting  their expertise.“We call on teachers, tutors, education officers and the public to join the Ministry of Education and the Media Resource Department to use their talents in the production of indigenous teaching and learning materials,” said acting chief audio-visual officer, C Walter Harper.Harper, speaking last Friday at the launch of a music video Time And Place: Speak Appropriately at the Gordon Corbin Studios, Government Hill, St Michael, said these materials could then be exported to other Caribbean territories, much like how some other countries in the region were already doing.“Our textbooks are written by teachers in Jamaica, St Lucia and Trinidad and I am saying that Barbadian teachers need to get in on the act. We are hoping to create indigenous teaching and learning material and by so doing create a micro industry where we can export some of the best we produce throughout the region.“[To this end], we are forming partnerships with teachers where we pay them to write scripts for radio, television and the Internet. We are also encouraging teachers who have books to publish to contact us so we can have them printed, and in terms of animation, we are encouraging them to take their lessons, put them into powerpoint, and we will assist with the animation,” he said. (CA)