A tough-talk­ing Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh has warned more than 2,400 delin­quent teach­ers, say­ing they must stop their un­punc­tu­al­i­ty and ir­reg­u­lar­i­ty im­me­di­ate­ly. He was de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress af­ter open­ing the Tul­sa Trace Hin­du SD­MA Pri­ma­ry School, where he dis­closed that CCTV cam­eras would be in­stalled in all schools. He al­so slammed the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion for re­cent com­ments that the union was not con­sult­ed on planned changes to the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am syl­labus. "We held dis­trict con­sul­ta­tions re­gard­ing the Con­tin­u­ous As­sess­ment Com­po­nent (CAC) so for TTUTA to come now and say they were nev­er con­sult­ed is ques­tion­able," Gopeesingh said. He re­it­er­at­ed that teach­ers were still con­tin­u­ing to ne­glect their roles. "Fif­teen per cent and more teach­ers take 15 days' sick leave and 28 half-days ca­su­al leave. This is un­ac­cept­able. So we are call­ing on TTUTA to take charge of the teach­ers un­der its fold to en­sure this fla­grant prob­lem does not con­tin­ue in schools to dis­ad­van­tage of quar­ter-mil­lion chil­dren," Gopeesingh said.

He added that 85 per cent of the 16,000 teach­ers em­ployed by the min­istry were per­form­ing well. "The re­main­ing 15 per cent who abuse the process by en­gag­ing in ir­reg­u­lar­i­ty and un­punc­tu­al­i­ty must cease this im­me­di­ate­ly and give your time to the chil­dren," he said. Gopeesingh said if "Gov­ern­ment did not shift the par­a­digm in ed­u­ca­tion over this five years, we will not have a sit­u­a­tion where crime is re­duced and so­ci­ety is gov­ern­able." He al­so promised that be­tween 40 and 50 schools would be re­paired dur­ing the Au­gust va­ca­tion. "We have asked 17 de­nom­i­na­tion­al boards to give pri­or­i­ty list­ing of all schools that need con­struc­tion so that we can make sure schools are se­cure and safe," Gopeesingh added. Say­ing the min­istry could nev­er be ac­cused of be­ing dis­crim­i­na­to­ry, Gopeesingh said all MPs al­so were be­ing asked to iden­ti­fy two schools which were in dire need of re­pairs. He said Gov­ern­ment al­so was in­creas­ing In­ter­net con­nec­tiv­i­ty in schools.