If principals respond to new Chief Education Officer Susan Dougan, they should make some accomplishments.
During Professional Development Week, principals looked at projects of excellence in their schools and worked out ways to keep that level. {{more}} Dougan, whose appointment to the post of CEO had caused some simmering disapproval by the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers Union, was making her first major address since assuming that post on August 9, 2004 at the Meeting of Principals of Institutions staged at Peace Memorial.
The new CEO urged the principals to develop an interim action plan for their school’s achievement in 2003/2004. She asked for two projects on the challenges and needs the schools faced by July 2005.
The appeal was Dougan’s way of breaking the ice with the principals, many of whom were preparing for new roles. She reminded the educators that they had a critical role in the “move forward in the implementation of initiatives towards higher standards and improved quality”.
Based on that premise, Dougan regarded her appointment as coinciding with “exciting times in education with the numerous advances in information communication technology to assist the process”.
The new CEO pledged her commitment to work closely with the principals. She declared her willingness to change and to accept advances, but stressed that they must be “meaningful and relevant”.
Dougan comes from a foundation of hard work and discipline and professed her desire to remain “passionate in promoting an educational culture where our people can become competitive”. She asserted that such groundwork would create conditions for “strong economic growth, personal development and career fulfillment”.
One with a healthy record of achievement in the educational sphere, Dougan outlined that education was central to development, especially in a small state such as ours. She suggested that emphasis be placed on those children who were not yet achieving. And she emphasized that the prosperity of the nation depended on making a dramatic change in that direction.