Stu­dents and teach­ers of ten schools in Port of Spain met with ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly to­day as the na­tion­al school vis­i­ta­tion dri­ve made its sec­ond tour this year. The team pro­vid­ed in­sight in­to planned up­grades, where ap­plic­a­ble, and ad­vised on oth­er op­er­a­tional mat­ters raised by teach­ers and prin­ci­pals.  

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion: 

Stu­dents and teach­ers of ten (10) schools in the Port-of-Spain Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict en­gaged with Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ters, Dr. the Hon. Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and the Hon. Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, as the na­tion­al school vis­i­ta­tion dri­ve made its sec­ond tour for Aca­d­e­m­ic Year 2022/2023 to­day, Sep­tem­ber 27th, 2022. 

At ap­prox­i­mate­ly 8:30am the del­e­ga­tion ar­rived at New­town Boys' RC School where the school’s prin­ci­pal (Ag.) Ms. Nicole Cheekes, led a tour of the school and en­sured some of the stu­dents had the chance to meet and chat with the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ters. The sis­ter school, St. Patrick’s New­town Girls' RC, Pri­ma­ry was next fol­lowed by Tran­quil­li­ty Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, Pic­cadil­ly Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, Bish­op Anstey High School, Holy Name Con­vent, Rosary Boys' RC Pri­ma­ry, St Rose’s Girls RC Pri­ma­ry and St. Mary’s Col­lege, with the fi­nal stop at Moul­ton Hall Pri­ma­ry. 

The 10-school tour gave the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ters a first-hand overview of the schools’ in­fra­struc­ture, and the Prin­ci­pals were en­gaged on op­er­a­tional is­sues. The MoE Tech­ni­cal team pro­vid­ed in­sight in­to planned up­grades, where ap­plic­a­ble, and ad­vised on oth­er op­er­a­tional mat­ters raised by teach­ers and prin­ci­pals. How­ev­er, it was the stu­dents who cap­tured most of the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ters' at­ten­tion at each school. Both Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ters chat­ted with stu­dents about their ex­pe­ri­ence be­ing back in phys­i­cal school, with Min­is­ter Gads­by-Dol­ly chal­leng­ing stu­dents to “al­ways go the ex­tra mile, be com­mit­ted to ex­cel­lence and turn up every day for school. Ed­u­ca­tion is your best chance, don’t give up.” 

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s (MoE) tech­ni­cal team was led by Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Kurt Mey­er, and in­clud­ed Chief Ed­u­ca­tion Of­fi­cer, Dr. Pe­ter Smith, Di­rec­tor of School Su­per­vi­sion, Joy Grif­fith, Di­rec­tor of Ed­u­ca­tion Fa­cil­i­ties Di­vi­sion, Wayne Cop­per and School Su­per­vi­sors Shawn Tull (SSI­II), Michael Bab­wah (SSII Ag.) and Mar­cia De Fre­itas (SSI). 

School vis­its are ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue through­out aca­d­e­m­ic year 2022/2023.