Thousands of migrant children in T&T should be given the opportunity to access an education, says Co-ordinator of the La Romaine Migrant Support Group Angie Ramnarine. The call came after Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar raised the issue of the children's education at the Monday Night Forum two weeks ago.
Persad-Bissessar, addressing the Government, said, "You accepted them and gave them licence to stay in T&T. It is about time we allow these children to enter our public school system to get an education."
In 2019, 16, 523 Venezuelan migrants were allowed to legally work in T&T and since then they have been given extensions to legally work and live here.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) data, there are just over 4,000 children, between the ages of five and 17 years, among the asylum seekers and refugees registered with the UNHCR in T&T.
However, under the Equal Place Programme–an online education initiative implemented by the Living Water Community in T&T for migrants in 2019 as a temporary solution from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)–only 1,662 migrant children have access to the programme as of June 2022.
The data means thousands of migrant children are left with no access to education. The new school term starts on September 5.
Angie Ramnarine, co-ordinator, La Romaine Migrant Support Group.
RISHI RAGOONATH
"We have been saying migrant children need to be educated for years. We didn’t want to lose a generation and add to crime and other social problems. We thought that one of the first ways to address one of the many issues that migrants were having was to start with the children’s education," Ramnarine said.
"My group started with an education thrust. The Catholic Church also got involved, that's how the St Benedict Church in La Romaine opened its doors to that whole experiment in education."
Ramnarine, an experienced educator, has spent 16 years as a teacher of Modern Languages in the secondary school system.
She argued that the local education system is syllabus-and-exam driven and given the backgrounds of the migrant children, however, she does not think they should be incorporated into the public school system.
While she admits that the education system has its problems, she is calling on the authorities to create special programmes to assist not only Venezuelan migrants but migrant children from all countries.
"Those Venezuelan children born here would probably adapt to the public school system better than those children who were born in Venezuela. While we need to educate the migrants, there was a big gap between academic age and chronological age.
"I didn’t think that T&T’s public school system was the right place for them to start as yet. It would do a disservice to the local teachers, as teachers are always rushing to finish the syllabus."
Her NGO continues to play its part in assisting migrant children, as she said her group continues to provide 'child-friendly spaces' to them.
"We were doing ‘school’ on the church compound since 2019. We are still doing it. I just completed a one-month camp for school life for them. We use the church hall, and we cater for children between ages five and 12. The size of this latest class is roughly 40 students. We depend on volunteer teachers."
Dr Anthony Gonzales
Weighing in on the debate, former director of the Institute of International Relations, University of the West Indies (UWI) Dr Anthony Gonzales told the Sunday Guardian that if migrant children can be accommodated, then they should be allowed into the local public school system.
"The International Refugee Convention says once a country gives someone refugee status, the country is supposed to provide education for the children. That is largely public education. Countries in the region that do that are the Dominican Republic and Guyana.
"I don’t know what the problem is in T&T. I don’t know what the numbers are like and how many more students T&T’s education can take, but if it is reasonable, I think they should take in these migrant students."
The Sunday Guardian reached out to Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly and Venezuelan Ambassador Álvaro Enrique Cordero on the matter, but they did not reply up to late yesterday.