What we did

                                        Working for NCERD

We were volunteers for VSO International on a two year placement. We went as a couple and were both volunteers with our own distinctive roles.

We worked in the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD) in Georgetown Guyana. It is situated on the North Coast of the city in Kingston overlooking the Atlantic. The centre is responsible for the creation of all educational resources, curriculum, assessment, professional development and management training. During our time there we worked with other volunteers - Meg (Special Needs and Literacy), Hans (Special Needs), Jane (Media), Ann (Literacy), Jessa (Literacy) and Nicholas (PE - Guyanese but honorary volunteer!) as well as all of the staff in other departments in NCERD.

Mary

She worked as a Literacy Specialist in close conjunction with Meg, another UK volunteer who had responsiblity for the development of resources for Special Educational Needs. The work involved training teachers in NCERD and around the country, developing materials for primary schools and training trainers especially in the teaching of reading through phonics
Mary presents certificates
at Fresh Start Workshop
Mary training at the launch of National Literacy
Stephen

He worked alongside Mary and Meg as the Management Specialist. His role was to work with Headteachers, prospective Headteachers and teachers to develop their leadership and management skills. This was done through the training of Master Trainers throughout the country and the development of an accredited 11 module Education Management Certificate course (Guyana equivalent of NPQH) as well as online materials. He also worked with individual schools on a range of issues and delivered training on Leadership to Education Professionals and managers throughout the country.
Training Master Trainers in Bartica
Materials for Education Management Certificate

Both roles were national posts working throughout the country in all 10 regions as well as Georgetown


Looking out from NCERD
NCERD