Together with the Curacao Chamber of Commerce & Industry and in partnership with the Government of Curacao, schoolboards, and various local school officials and educators, the U.S. Consulate is proud to be supporting a program to study the development English language curriculum for Curacao schools.
Earlier this year, the Curacao Chamber of Commerce & Industry approached the U.S. Consulate General for support in developing an English language curriculum for all school systems in Curacao. The U.S. Department of State agreed to fund an assessment of the current situation on Curacao and worked with Georgetown University to evaluate specialists suited to the task.
In a competitive process, stakeholders, selected Dr. Christine Jernigan (photo), who has a PhD specialized in teaching English to speakers of other languages and who has extensive experience developing English language programs throughout the world. Dr. Jernigan starts this week with a three-week virtual assessment of the current English language curriculum for schools on Curacao.
The first phase, a needs assessment process will require the Specialist to evaluate the current primary and secondary schools’ English language curriculum and make recommendations on how best to improve the curriculum based on the needs of the population, the culture, and economic/academic goals of Curacao.
The Specialist will meet with various stakeholders, including Ministry of Education officials, local company representatives, school officials, students, the Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and others involved in the educational system to acquire a deeper understanding of the current system so as to develop recommendations for changing the curriculum to better meet Curacao’s academic objectives.
Consul General Allen Greenberg applauded the initiative and stated that “enhancing English language capabilities, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, will better prepare young people to become innovators and entrepreneurs in these fields and therefore can provide future economic benefits to Curacao.”
I believe that learning languages at school is really important, and it’s a necessity to know at least one foreign language.
I totally agree, and nowadays, it’s just a necessity to know at least one foreign language. Now I’m learning Spanish, and it’s not that hard when you know English. For me, it’s enough to increase my vocabulary by watching TV shows on lingopie in Spanish, and I understand natives more than a few weeks ago.