Based in:  Kingston, Jamaica
Managed by: University of the West Indies

The Caribbean Center of Excellence for Teacher Training (C-CETT) trains and empowers teachers who work with children in rural and urban poor communities across the Caribbean.

C-CETT has raised expectations for teacher training outcomes in the Caribbean; now training is only considered successful when it translates into results in the classroom.  Children made the most progress in learning to read when their teacher attended CETT workshops, focused on applying the CETT model for teaching reading, actively worked on classroom transformation, and encouraged their students to read at home.

C-CETT broke new ground by taking the lead in developing standards for the level of education and training expected of reading teachers and for student achievement. For the first time, there is a set of common primary school standards for reading and writing agreed upon by all twelve countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. This is an important step to significantly improve the teaching of reading and writing in the region. The Caribbean Ministries of Education are so pleased with standards developed by C-CETT for Grades 1 to 3 that they requested that the C-CETT develop similar standards for Grades 4 to 6.

Program Success Leads to Expansion Throughout the Caribbean

The high quality of CETT training has prompted Ministries of Education to request that all teachers receive CETT training and inspired some governments to self-finance early participation or expansion of the CETT. St. Lucia is one country that has opted to provide funding to expand CETT. Thanks to CETT, one of St. Lucia’s schools performed above the national average on the 2nd grade minimum standards test for the first time in the school’s history. This success is repeated in CETT schools across the Caribbean and has contributed to governments’ enthusiastic requests to join the CETT program.

CETT’s success in St. Lucia and other islands inspired Trinidad and Tobago to request early entrance to CETT. Working closely with CETT, the Ministry of Education gained tremendous support from the private sector, which enabled Trinidad and Tobago to self-finance CETT training on the islands. The Trinidad and Tobago experience provides a successful model for private-public and international collaboration to improve education. Grenada also adopted this model. 

C-CETT has also played a leading role in the promotion of greater Caribbean integration by establishing the Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN). The WWAN also bridges an important gap in training and offers a cost effective way to offer training, exchange ideas, and share best practices to a broader network of teachers. Thanks to the WWAN, the benefits of C-CETT will reach more children across the Caribbean.

CETT Teachers Share Their Stories

• Jamaica – Male Teachers Can Be Role Models
• St. Lucia – From Worst To Best In Two Years

Caribbean CETT Partnerships

C-CETT partners support the notion that "Education is everybody's business," and recognize that the private sector benefits from initiatives that improve education. Through their ongoing engagement and support of the C-CETT, private sector partners across the Caribbean have inspired an increasing interest by others in offering similar support, and the number of private sector partners continues to grow.