Education Minister, Sonia Parag, on Saturday morning met with the leadership of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) to discuss ways to strengthen the institution’s ability to keep up with the evolving needs of the education sector. The Minister met with Director of CPCE, Dr Tamashwar Budhoo, and Vice Principal, Tamsin Henry Granville, along with other senior staff, with discussions focused on strengthening the curriculum, maintaining the highest standards in the quality of training delivered and increasing the College’s output of trained teachers across the various subject areas and levels of the education system. According to a statement from the Ministry of Education, the discussion also focused on ensuring that Guyana continues to produce highly skilled, classroom-ready educators. “With a new batch of teachers preparing to commence training, the meeting also examined how CPCE can continue to respond to the evolving needs of the education sector and ensure that teachers entering classrooms across the country are equipped with the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to deliver quality education to every learner,” the Ministry said.

Already, in the past five years, CPCE has revised and updated the curriculum to reflect and provide for modern teaching needs and national education priorities. In fact, late last year, Parag had announced the introduction of a series of new specialisation programmes that are now being offered at the CPCE. These include: Geography to secondary trainees; History to secondary trainees; Chemistry to secondary trainees; Physics to secondary trainees; French to secondary trainees; and Portuguese to secondary trainees, as well as a one-year training programme for guidance and counselling officers and a six-week programme for parents of special needs children. Additionally, in a major move to decentralise teachers’ training, the Education Minister, a few months ago, announced the construction of a new CPCE Centre in Charity, along the Essequibo Coast, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam). A total of $45 million has already been allocated in the 2026 budget to kickstart the project, which will specifically serve educators in the Pomeroon River and other nearby remote communities. This initiative ensures that professional development is accessible to teachers residing in those hard-to-reach areas, ending an era where they were forced to leave their homes and families to gain certification. Hundreds of teachers are trained annually through CPCE, with the goal of having 100 per cent trained teachers in the system.

Last year, 1345 trained teachers from CPCE, one of the largest graduating cohorts in the history of the institution.