Director of education Lionel Sands announced yesterday that there is a lack of ‘tech savvy’ teachers within the country’s education system.

Speaking to over 200 aspiring educators during the Future Teachers of The Bahamas National Conference under the theme ‘Yes I Can’, Mr. Sands said that there are too many teachers in the country who don’t keep up with modern technology and it reflects on their relationship with students.

“There are teachers who don’t know how to use a cellphone, much less a computer, but they want to be teachers. They want to teach primary students who use computers more than they drink water,” he said.

“We need teachers that are going to take pride in what they do and understand the importance of them keeping up to date with what’s what in technology. I think once teachers are able to understand the world their students live in, then there will be a better relationship between them.”

At the conference, both high school and college students throughout the country engaged in the annual conference that pushes the students to revolutionise the teaching industry in The Bahamas.

Mr. Sands, who has over 40 years of teaching experience, encouraged the future teachers to not follow the path of being a general education teacher.

He said that there are too many of them in the country and in terms of specialisation, there are too many foreign teachers that fill the more important spots.

“What we’re encouraging our Bahamian future teachers to do is to look at the areas where the needs are. Whenever you pursue areas where needs are, you’re sure of a job when you’re finished with college,” he said.

“It’s more difficult to get a job with us if we’ve already filled those needs with other people prior to your coming there.”
He said areas like mathematics and the sciences are always good areas for students to study.

During the awards ceremony, several students were honoured for their achievements both in and out of the future teachers programme.

D’Aesha Rahming, a graduate of St. Augustine’s College and currently a Biology Education Major at the College of The Bahamas (COB) was given the award of Most Outstanding Teacher Education Graduate after receiving seven As and three Bs in the 2012 BGCSE examinations.

Nadia Hepburn-Whymms, a teacher at C. V. Bethel Senior High, received the Most Outstanding Recruit for getting the most students involved in the programme.

There are over 5,600 teachers in both the public and private sector and over 75,000 students.

Since its inception 18 years ago, the Future Teachers programme is responsible for getting over 400 teachers into the profession after completing studies at COB.