91Â鶹¹ú²ú¾«Æ·×ÔÅÄ

In the Caribbean, available data shows that nearly 7 million learners in 23 countries and more than 91 000 teachers are affected by school closures due to COVID-19.

To address the unprecedented disruptions to Caribbean education systems, UNESCO and Blackboard, through , are providing training in quality distance and blended learning to 10,000 teachers in 20 Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS). 

The programme 'Education response to COVID-19: Strategies for Distance Education and Training in the Caribbean SIDS' builds on the experience of the to enhance capacities of teacher educators, teachers and education leaders in digital skills and blended learning solutions through a coordinated regional approach to developing, delivering and maintaining quality online learning resources.

In 2020, UNESCO trained in a pilot intervention 80 teachers in the Caribbean SIDS to improve their skills in online and blended teaching and to develop their digital literacy through several weeks of intensive distance learning courses for K-12 through the Pilot Project "Professional Development for Teachers for Blended Learning and Online Strategies". This helped the teachers to become more proficient in using computers and other digital methods with the new distance learning modality, and how to deliver quality and inclusive lessons to their students. 

The project is made possible through the financial support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with a duration from January - November 2021. The Latin American and Caribbean project will be implemented in 20 Caribbean Small Island Developing States and in Peru. A special focus will be given to ensure that the most vulnerable girls, boys and adolescents will not be left behind in their learning, and that possible gender differences are taken into account in the distance learning opportunities.

Three interventions will strengthen the professional capacity of teachers in the Caribbean as follows. First, a group of 40 master trainers from 20 countries will be empowered to lead the course "Blended Learning and Online Strategies". After the pilot phase, the train-the-trainer model will be scaled up regionally to support the development of new trainings in 20 Caribbean countries. The master trainers will scale up the training to 10,000 teachers in 20 countries with teacher support where relevant.

The Caribbean component will be implemented in Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, Aruba, British Virgin Islands, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.