CPCE refutes allegations made by Overseas based Guyanese
Statement from the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE)
The Cyril Potter College of Education notes with concern an abusive, libelous rant of a man, who appears to be living in a foreign land, on the social media platform Facebook.
The College would be happy to receive any information that is credible and would work expeditiously to resolve any legitimate issue raised.
In the meanwhile, the CPCE states emphatically the following:
1. No student graduated CPCE on the 29th of November 2023 without grades.
2. A physical inspection can be done of the grades for every single trainee who graduated. Please feel free to contact the Principal of CPCE to do so.
3. The number of Teaching Practice (TP) was changed from 4 Guided TP to 2 Guided TP, 4 Individual Study TP to 2 Individual Study TP, 4 Final TP to 2 Final TP. This was done long in advance of Graduation. It has always been that trainees were assessed on the best 2 of the 4 TPs done. Previously, CPCE trainees were required to do 12 TPs. This meant that CPCE would have had to engage in more than 24 000 TPs for its more than 2000 trainees. Additionally, CPCE also decided that rather than CPCE doing the TPs only, it would be useful to use Education Officers and Head teachers to do TPs. Therefore, a trainee may have failed the ONE TP done by the HM but would have passed TP based on the average of all TPs (the average of the other 5 TPs).
4. CPCE has a backlog of more than 1200 transcripts to be completed. Most of those are for the UG students who graduated 2 or 3 weeks ago and those who have now started. The transcripts were not issued when the students started UG previously but now UG needs it. Our emphasis is on completing these UG needed transcripts first. The students who graduated on November 29th were asked to wait a bit while the outstanding transcripts are prepared. CPCE’s graduating students will need a transcript closer to September 2024 if they decide to enter the UG. We are working to make sure we are current with transcripts in the shortest possible time.
5. We also wish to point out that the claim that the ranting man made that everyone graduated “with B grades even if they failed” is clearly untrue as the man’s own daughter, whom he referenced several times in his video, was unable to graduate. The CPCE has always operated under specific guidelines and criteria regarding the varying levels of attainment such as distinction, credit, pass and fail. For the 2023 graduating cohort, teacher candidates were featured in mostly the first three (3) quartiles. The percentage of trainees earning distinction, credit and pass was no different from previous years.
6. Further, CPCE wishes to express its utter disappointment and condemnation of its trainees being called ‘dunces’ by a man who seems uneducated about the norms of the College. Such labelling is ironic coming from one who served as an unqualified and untrained teacher and has several instances of indiscipline on his record that even resulted in the withholding of his salary and which instances could not have inured to the benefit of the children under his care. Moreso, we refute the condemnation of the College’s Principal and other members of the leadership team who have worked tirelessly to bring about good for Guyana.
The CPCE reiterates just how proud it is to have been able to, in the face of COVID 19, train the Caribbean’s largest single batch of teachers thereby raising both the quality and quantity of trained teachers in the classrooms across Guyana.
The CPCE will remain resolute in its mandate and asks that persons refrain from politicizing the training of teachers as when our teachers perform it is all of Guyana and Guyana’s children who benefit. We wish to remind this nation that we have been training Guyana’s teachers for the last 95 years.
