The Department of Educational Studies, UWI, Mona has just launched the UWI’s first undergraduate online programme, the Bachelor of Education in Literacy Studies to participants in four Organization of Eastern Caribbean States countries: St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Dominica. The programme is a new modality to meet expressed needs and development goals from the ministries of education in these four territories and is offered to trained teachers in primary and secondary schools. It should contribute to regional attempts to develop expertise amongst a cohort of literacy professionals, especially in light of the institution of universal secondary education and the great need to achieve not only access to secondary education but also equity through multi-level teaching. The end result will be to raise levels of literacy significantly.
The programme is part time, beginning this summer and running for 4 semesters and three summers, until summer 2008. Teaching for this summer, with the support of the University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre’s blended method, begins on Monday, June 26 and ends August 18. With an initial offer of places to 100 online scholars, the Department is anticipating a successful endeavour and hopes that this will be the beginning of a more extensive and responsive offer to the region.