Jamaican teachers learn about right to work, travel and do business in CARICOM

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica -- Teachers from more than 20 schools in western Jamaica will learn how to teach students about their right to work, travel and do business in 13 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, in a special two day workshop starting on Monday in Montego Bay.

The CARICOM Single Market teacher training workshop starts with an opening ceremony featuring officials from the CARICOM Secretariat’s Barbados-based CARICOM Single Market and Economy Unit. The opening will include refresher presentations on the CSME, latest decisions and groundbreaking judgments, and an overview of the rights of all Jamaicans and their legally defensible means of redress if those rights are violated.

The workshop, convened by the national focal point ministry for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy in Jamaica, the ministry of foreign affairs and foreign trade in partnership with the CARICOM Secretariat and with funding from the government of Canada, is intended to assist Jamaican teachers at the CXC and CCLC levels to integrate information on the CSME and the CSME regimes into their teaching plans, so as to better equip Jamaican youth to be aware of, and fully exploit their rights and privileges as CARICOM nationals.

Workshop facilitator Dr Gordon Harewood, a curriculum development specialist, will utilize a highly participatory training module to engage teachers. Similar teacher training sessions in Belize, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada have been highly commended. All participating teachers will receive certificates of participation.

The second teacher training workshop for Jamaica is scheduled for February 19 and 20 in Kingston and is part of a workshop series targeting critical stakeholders in the CSME. Workshops are also planned for the media and persons who have are actively accessing the various regimes of the Single Market.

This training opportunity is a programmed output under a “Consultancy to improve Information Flows within the CSME”. The project, now underway in Jamaica, Belize, Guyana, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada aims to increase the number and types of information channels promoting the CARICOM Single Market to CARICOM nationals. The project falls under component 300 of the CARICOM Trade and Competitiveness Project (CTCP) which seeks to widen the scope of participation by stakeholders and beneficiaries in the process of decision-making, implementation and operation of the CARICOM Single Market.