The week of 26 January on St. Eustatius is dominated by the assessment which is taken by approximately 120 teachers and other education professionals in order to establish the level of their command of Standard English. The assessment and the subsequent training route of the educational staff is organised by the University of St. Martin (USM), at the request of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
Prior to the assessment, the participants took a so-called self-assessment in which they themselves could estimate their own level for the various skills. On Monday and Tuesday the written skills were tested. From Wednesday through Friday the participants will be tested individually on their oral skills. On the basis of the results of the assessment, the USM will be able to determine who needs training in what areas. At the end of February the participants will be divided into subgroups and during the training route they will be coached by the USM teachers, who will act as mentors. The trainings will start in the month of April.
The objective of the assessment and training route is to guarantee that the teachers will have sufficient command of Standard English to be able to teach in this language as of August 2015. This program is part of the transition to English as instruction language in education on St. Eustatius. At the end of the training, the teachers will take an exam in order to obtain the Cambridge English Examination Certificate.