(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Accelerating the Implementation of the Education Agenda  is the theme for the Seventeenth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD), and Ministers with responsibility for education will meet on 17-18 November to evaluate the progress made in education for the past ten years and to devise ways of expediting the education agenda within the Caribbean Community.

Scheduled for the Guyana International Convention Centre, Georgetown, the two-day COHSOD Meeting has a packed agenda which places emphasis on functional cooperation in several critical areas.  These include the Caribbean Vocation Qualification (CVQ). Launched in 2007 as one of the standards to facilitate the movement of skilled persons other than University graduates, within the Region, the CVQ is seen as having the potential to promote the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, (CSME), through a validation of technical skills of CARICOM Nationals.

The COHSOD Meeting is also expected to examine the treatment of teacher education and training in this age of new information technologies, and the work of the Caribbean Knowledge Learning Network (CKLN) will be reviewed within the context of how it can facilitate distance training and education at tertiary levels.

The CKLN was established in 2004 to foster the upgrading of tertiary institutions across the Region in an effort to increase their ability to use modern approaches to learning; and make recommendations on how this tool could be further maximized in facilitating greater collaboration between tertiary institutions in reaching a wider cross-section of the Community’s students.

Also at the COHSOD, CXC Director, Dr Didacus Jules will share his Vision for the Caribbean Examinations Council. It is anticipated that this new vision will engender vigorous discussion among Ministers and provide useful insights into the strategic positioning of CXC in fostering regional development through education.

A noteworthy feature of this COHSOD is that approximately seven new ministers of education will be attending and are expected to complement the Meeting with new and fresh perspectives.