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refused. I instead went into an accounting career. Somewhere along the line I realised that I wanted to create change and I figured that the only way I could do that was start with children and what better profession than becoming a teacher. My aunt is now a retired teacher. She tells me had I listen to her I would have been teaching for longer but for me it’s better to teach wanting to teach than to just teach because you are qualified to do so. I always say when you do teaching, it’s different than taking any other jobs because it concerns moulding the minds of children,” Lanferman-Duncan said.
When she first took up the profession, she began as a Principles of Business teacher and taught the tenth and eleventh graders, but it took a lot of work to get them prepared for writing CSEC. It didn’t take her long to realize that the work was much more needed at the foundation and she later switched to teaching mathematics at the three lower grades, having majored in mathematics at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE).
Lanferman-Duncan said that there isn’t much a teacher can do for a child when they get to the CSEC level which is why she chose to work at the foundation levels.
Apart from being a teacher, Lanferman-Duncan is a mother and wife. She has three daughters, all of whom have online classes as well and one of whom is currently preparing to write the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) examinations.
Regarding the plans to have the Caribbean Secondary Education Certification (CSEC) and NGSA exam being held in July, Lanferman Duncan said she is against it the safety of the childre should be paramount. Childre sitting these examinations, sh argued, are already tense an fearful and she believes th this will be compounded b the current pandemic. She sa children should be relaxe when writing exams instead worrying about the child si ting next to them could be infected or that they may hav touched the same surfac another child has touched.
At this point in tim Lanferman-Duncan adde children are more worrie about what they are going eat since many of their paren are without jobs. She said sh considers her sixth grader be fortunate enough to hav internet access as well as a pa ent who can see that she doing her lessons. “Wh about the students who are n as fortunate, and their paren are not educated enough work along with them? Ye the teachers are doing their b but the child needs that ext push. What will happen to th children who do not hav internet access like th Amerindian communities an other communities as suc where they cannot get th work that is being given? If were up to me, I’d say let the children do their exams month after school reopen People don’t make holist decisions, especially when relates to children,” sh stressed.
She hopes to someda become a policy maker in edu cation as she wants to be in a area where she can make mo of an impact on the system. want when my name is men tioned, I want it to be associa ed with a real revolutionar change as it relates to youn