Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS

2011-Dec-10-1702Hrs

Errol,

I was browsing through some old tidbits I had gathered on Mausica Teachers' College, and I thought it would make good reading and info on how this good thing started and ended.

Herbert Garvin.

"Discussion Paper

Trinidad & Tobago: A Baseline Study of the Teacher Education System

Linda Quamina-Aiyejina, June George, Michael Kallon, Carol Keller, Samual Lochan, Jeniffer Mohammed, Balchan Rampaul

July 1999

Centre for International Education

University of Sussex Institute of Education

Multi-Site Teacher Education Research Project (MUSTER)

2.4.4 Pre-Service Training

The Maurice Committee also recommended the construction of a central college to accommodate a roll of 300 students. This recommendation was echoed by the Missen Report of 1954 which recommended the establishment of a Central Training College for Trinidad and Tobago. This resulted in the construction of Mausica Teachers’ College on a 65-acre site about 17 miles from Port of Spain. In September 1963, the college was formally opened with an enrolment of 110 students, three of whom were from Grenada.

Mausica was intended to be different from the existing colleges. It offered pre-service training to secondary school graduates who became full-time teachers  only after graduation. Persons between 18 and 25 years were accepted if they possessed five O Level passes or their equivalent. They were required to sit an entrance examination, and only those gaining 66% or more at the examination went on to be interviewed by a panel.

2.9 The Consolidation of Teacher Training

In 1956, there was one government Training College and three denominational Training Colleges with a total output of about 300 trained teachers annually. After the period of Emergency training which ended in 1962, the next major attempt to increase the supply of trained teachers came with the establishment of Mausica Teachers’ College, a residential college for young male and female teachers between 18 and 25 years. It became the largest training college with an output of about 110 students per year, which was increased further in the late 1960s to meet the challenge of preparing teachers for the junior secondary schools. This co-existence of pre-service training with in-service training at all the colleges, increased both the number of young trained teachers and the number of male teachers.

Later on, a decision was taken to close all denominational colleges getting government aid, as well as the Government Training College and the Port of Spain Emergency College, and to concentrate and economize on teacher training facilities by having two other government colleges in addition to Mausica, one in the North and another in the South. Eventually, this proposal was abandoned in favour of a strategy which called for the establishment of two new government colleges, each larger than Mausica, and the closure of Mausica. It has been surmised that the ideal of pre-service training at Mausica had apparently not worked as well as anticipated. The award of seniority and higher remuneration to young inexperienced Mausica graduates had sparked resentment and complaints from older untrained teachers with long service. It was also felt that doubts had developed about the commitment to teaching and the overall quality of these young teachers, some of whom had gone to Mausica directly from secondary schools.

The establishment of the two new government colleges, Corinth Teachers’ College  and Valsayn Teachers’ College in the 1970s, marked a return to the old formula of in-service training, aimed at accelerating the clearing of the backlog of untrained teachers. The system is still in operation.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO MEDIUM-TERM POLICY FRAMEWORK

2001-2003

Refurbishment works will be carried out at the former Mausica Teachers’ Training College, which will be converted to a Training College for prison service recruits as well as for the ongoing training of Prison Officers.

p. 37"