SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Days ahead of the open­ing of the new school term, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly is ap­peal­ing to cor­po­rate T&T to as­sist stu­dents who do not have ac­cess to de­vices or the in­ter­net to par­tic­i­pate in on­line learn­ing.

At a press con­fer­ence on Fri­day morn­ing at the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion build­ing on St Vin­cent Street, Port of Spain, Gads­by-Dol­ly said about one-third of the na­tion’s stu­dents do not have ei­ther a de­vice or ac­cess to the in­ter­net for on­line learn­ing.

She said the new mode of de­liv­ery for school­ing will en­com­pass on­line class­es on a sched­uled sys­tem for stu­dents with in­ter­net ac­cess. Pack­ages con­tain­ing course­work and as­sign­ments will be sent to those stu­dents with­out in­ter­net ac­cess and once com­plet­ed, par­ents or stu­dents will need to re­turn them to their teach­ers.

She said class­es will al­so be streamed on tele­vi­sion, broad­cast­ed on ra­dio and lessons print­ed in news­pa­per pull­outs.

Gads­by-Dol­ly said 500 meals will be de­liv­ered dai­ly to each of the 41 of­fices of Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment to cater for stu­dents en­rolled in the School Feed­ing Pro­gramme.