Education Minister Tara Rivers will visit publicly funded independent schools in the United Kingdom this week as part of a review of Cayman’s public schools.
The minister and a team from her ministry, including Councillor for Education Winston Connolly, Chief Officer for Education Mary Rodrigues and Deputy Chief Officer Tasha Ebanks-Garcia, will be in London to attend the Education World Forum from Jan 20-22.
According to a statement released by the Cayman Islands Government on Friday, Minister Rivers and her team will stay on in London until Jan. 26 to meet with ministers and lords responsible for education and employment in the U.K. The delegation will also visit some high performing schools in the London area and Jobcentre Plus locations.
“As the Education World Forum is in London, it provides a good opportunity for us to visit high performing schools in the area and learn first-hand of the employment initiatives of the U.K. Government,” Ms Rivers said in the statement. “The ministry is currently reviewing the governance model of public schools in the Cayman Islands in an effort to explore methods to improve local education and raise standards.
“We are also trying to develop the services provided by the National Workforce Development Agency, and are interested in reviewing similar agencies operating in the U.K. in an effort to better inform ourselves of the successes and ways to avoid the potential pitfalls of programs geared towards addressing the issue of unemployment.”
The publicly funded independent schools, known as academies in England, are required to follow the same law and guidance on admissions, exclusions and special education needs and disabilities as fully maintained public schools but have greater independence from local authority control. They also have the ability to set pay and conditions for their staff, decide how they deliver the curriculum and can change the length of their school terms.
Ms Rivers’s team will also visit a Jobcentre Plus, the U.K. government’s arm that assists in helping people find jobs. According to the statement, the team plans to spend time at a center and meet with senior staff to get an understanding of the work that takes place there.
In Minister Rivers’s absence, Councillor Alva Suckoo will be acting as temporary minister and Deputy Chief Officer Christen Suckoo will be acting chief officer.
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