Headed by the National Principals’ Association, the summit featured presentations by past and present educators who brought their expertise to the current crop of teachers.

NPA President Valerie St. Helene-Henry says the attendants are planning on adopting best practices in the administration of their schools.

“Our annual conference is a time where all principals gather to reflect, to receive more nourishment in terms of getting more ideas in terms of what they can go back into their schools and make changes to. I must say so far, from the Chief Education Officer to the Minister and our feature addresses, we have been given several things that we need to reflect on,” said the NPA president.

She says the schools are discussing methods to tackle social issues like deviance and delinquency.

“In terms of how we deal with the social issues that are creeping into our schools, how do we deal with the technology and make it become a more useful thing in the school, but in a positive way for our students,” she explained.

Former Education Minister and guest speaker, Dr Gale Rigobert, says educators must embrace the digital world to connect and relate to this generation of students.

“One of the things that educators must contend with is the extent to which digital media have taken over our world. Everything we do is digitized, whether it be in entertainment, business, banking, and our own family interactions. And to the extent that educational technology can be fully embraced and integrated into the pedagogic process, that certainly remains a key issue for consideration,” Dr. Rigobert said.

Education Minister Hon. Shawn Edward reaffirmed the government’s commitment to allocating resources to streamline the administrative work of principals.

“Prime Minister Pierre is favourably disposed to some of the recommendations that have been made by the Ministry of Education to his Ministry of Finance in terms of increased allocations for some of our areas of programming. For a while now, principals have been clamouring, particularly at the primary level, about the fact that they do not have secretaries or assistants to help them with some of their administrative functions. We have made that submission to the Ministry of Finance,” the Minister explained.

The summit was well-attended by several academics and educators, not least of which was former Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony.