Min­is­ters of Ed­u­ca­tion, Dr. Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and Lisa Mor­ris- Ju­lian, along with of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, met with school of­fi­cials and chil­dren at six schools in East and North Trinidad to wel­come them to the first day of in-per­son class­es for Stan­dard 5 and Forms 1 to 3.

Min­is­ter Dol­ly is ex­press­ing hap­pi­ness to see the chil­dren back to school. She al­so en­cour­aged the stu­dents to wear their mask, wash their hands and watch their dis­tance.” De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion:

Min­is­ters of Ed­u­ca­tion, Dr. Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and Lisa Mor­ris- Ju­lian, along with of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, vis­it­ed six schools in East and North Trinidad to meet with school of­fi­cials and chil­dren on the first day of in-per­son class­es for Stan­dard 5 and Forms 1 to 3. The schools vis­it­ed were Lak­sh­mi Girls’ Hin­du Col­lege; El Do­ra­do West Sec­ondary School; El So­cor­ro South Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; Low­er Mor­vant Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; Laven­tille Girls’ Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; and Bel­mont Sec­ondary School. The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion team was heart­ened by the en­thu­si­asm and ex­cite­ment of the stu­dents; es­pe­cial­ly those in Forms 1 and 2 who were en­ter­ing their phys­i­cal schools for the first time since sit­ting the S.E.A.

The Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter ex­pressed that, “We at the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion are hap­py to see you back in school. We are do­ing all we can to make sure that you are safe, how­ev­er, there are al­so some things that you must do to stay safe so that we can keep school open. Re­mem­ber to wear your mask, wash your hands and watch your dis­tance.”

Lev­els of at­ten­dance, im­ple­men­ta­tion of safe­ty pro­to­cols and gen­er­al readi­ness were as­sessed by the team of Min­istry of­fi­cials. From all re­ports, 99% of our 600-odd­schools were able to wel­come stu­dents phys­i­cal­ly. At sec­ondary schools, teacher and stu­dent at­ten­dance av­er­aged 84.5% and 65% re­spec­tive­ly, while at pri­ma­ry schools, 91% of teach­ers and 73% of stu­dents were in at­ten­dance. The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion will con­tin­ue to pro­vide crit­i­cal sup­port to schools to en­sure that by Wednes­day 9th Feb­ru­ary, 2022, all schools can re­sume phys­i­cal op­er­a­tions.

In ad­dress­ing the stu­dents at El So­cor­ro South Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School, the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter en­cour­aged all stu­dents to take full ad­van­tage of the ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties they have been giv­en and re­it­er­at­ed the val­ue of school­ing. The Ho­n­ourable Min­is­ters thank teach­ers, stu­dents, ad­min­is­tra­tors, par­ents and all stake­hold­ers for their pa­tri­o­tism, as we stand to­geth­er with a shared com­mit­ment: to pro­vide all our chil­dren with the best chance of ed­u­ca­tion­al suc­cess.

On Tues­day Feb­ru­ary 8, 2022, both Min­is­ters and a team of of­fi­cials from the Min­istry are ex­pect­ed to vis­it schools in South Trinidad.