It has been accepted practice in the University of the West Indies School of Education, and in Ministries of Education and teachers' colleges in the Eastern Caribbean that a significant criterion for recognition and certification as a trained teacher is the student teacher's performance in the final teaching-practice exercise during the final term of a two-year training course. Hence, panels of assessors comprising members of the University of the West Indies School of Education, of the Ministry of Education in the same terri tory as the teachers' college and of sister teachers' colleges have engaged in the annual exercise of assessing the teaching skills and competences of student-teachers, as demonstrated by them in classroom situations during their final practice-teaching sessions.