RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Just a week be­fore the new school term be­gins, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly says 2,000 more de­vices will be dis­trib­uted to de­serv­ing chil­dren over the next few days.

And as many par­ents strug­gle to buy books and sta­tionery, teach­ers and prin­ci­pals from sev­er­al schools have start­ed dis­trib­ut­ing school sup­plies to fam­i­lies in need.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Min­is­ter Gads­by-Dol­ly said the Min­istry has tak­en de­liv­ery of 20,000 de­vices.

"Of this, some 11,800 have been dis­trib­uted to stu­dents thus far, with a fur­ther 2,000 to be de­liv­ered dur­ing the course of this week. This is af­ter the do­na­tion of 22,000 de­vices through the Adopt-a-School Ini­tia­tive," she said.

All of the re­cip­i­ents of these de­vices were cho­sen af­ter a means test was done in schools.

"Of the 23,000 ap­pli­cants, over 6,628 did not sub­mit the rel­e­vant doc­u­men­ta­tion, and their Means Test ap­pli­ca­tion could not, there­fore, be processed," the Min­is­ter said.

She not­ed that 2,500 ap­pli­ca­tions are yet to be processed and this should be com­plet­ed while the dis­tri­b­u­tion of 2,500 de­vices con­tin­ues this week.

She not­ed that the Mi­Fi de­vices have been pro­cured through iGovTT.

"De­liv­ery is an­tic­i­pat­ed at the end of Au­gust or ear­ly Sep­tem­ber for dis­tri­b­u­tion to those iden­ti­fied as need­ing as­sis­tance in this re­gard from the Means Test," she said.

The Min­is­ter added that as the schools re­open, the con­tin­u­ing as­sess­ment will be done to en­sure that no child is left be­hind.

"Da­ta will be col­lect­ed from Prin­ci­pals about stu­dents who fail to en­gage in on­line class­es ear­ly in the up­com­ing term, and where ac­cess to a de­vice or con­nec­tiv­i­ty is the is­sue, ef­forts will be made to bridge the gap," she ex­plained.

Mean­while, sev­er­al schools have con­tin­ued as­sist­ing stu­dents.

At the Shi­va Boys Hin­du Col­lege, vice-prin­ci­pal Devi­nesh Neer­an­jan said sta­tionery in­clud­ing note­books, pens and oth­er items al­so were be­ing shared with needy stu­dents.

SB­HC's En­vi­ron­men­tal Sci­ence teacher Jaime Bir­bal has been as­sist­ing dozens of par­ents from across the coun­try with school sup­plies at both the pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school lev­els. Her stu­dents from the school's In­ter­act Club haves been col­lect­ing used school books and dis­trib­ut­ing them to needy fam­i­lies.

All stu­dents are ex­pect­ed to re­turn to school vir­tu­al­ly next Mon­day. From Oc­to­ber 1, on­ly ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed stu­dents in Forms Four, Five and Six will have the op­tion to at­tend face-to-face class­es at schools once there is no sig­nif­i­cant change in the num­ber of COVID-19 pos­i­tive cas­es.

Al­though vac­ci­na­tions are not manda­to­ry at this time, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley hint­ed that this could change.

At a re­cent press con­fer­ence, he said: "If at the end of the pe­ri­od we have set, which is mid-Sep­tem­ber, we look back on it and we see on­ly a pop­u­la­tion of vac­ci­nat­ed pupils which is well be­low the herd im­mu­ni­ty lev­el of 60 or 70 per cent, then the gov­ern­ment will have to act."

Re­sults for the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment ex­ams are ex­pect­ed to be re­leased by mid-Sep­tem­ber.