Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) is ex­pect­ing a low turnout of stu­dents dur­ing the first week of the new aca­d­e­m­ic year, warn­ing that de­lays in the re­lease and pro­cess­ing of book grants have left many par­ents scram­bling to pre­pare their chil­dren for Mon­day’s re­open­ing.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, TTUTA sec­ond vice pres­i­dent, Nigel Fi­garo, said the as­so­ci­a­tion has been re­ceiv­ing re­ports from teach­ers and par­ents that many fam­i­lies who were de­pend­ing on the grants to pur­chase books and oth­er school sup­plies are now strug­gling to get every­thing in place.

“We do an­tic­i­pate a very low stu­dent turnout in the first week be­cause a lot of par­ents were hop­ing to get the book grants.”

Fi­garo said TTUTA had al­so re­ceived re­ports that some par­ents who be­lieved they qual­i­fied for the as­sis­tance were sub­se­quent­ly told they did not.

“Par­ents are now scram­bling to put things in place be­cause, again, they were giv­en the as­sur­ances that the book grants would have been made ready to them.”

The TTUTA of­fi­cial said the sit­u­a­tion could mean that even stu­dents at­tend­ing schools that are phys­i­cal­ly ready to re­open may not be ad­e­quate­ly pre­pared to be­gin the new aca­d­e­m­ic year.

Fi­garo said TTUTA was al­so re­ceiv­ing re­ports that some school prin­ci­pals had not re­ceived the full amounts promised to as­sist with the op­er­a­tion of their schools.

Re­pair de­lays com­pound con­cerns

But de­lays sur­round­ing book grants are on­ly one of sev­er­al is­sues TTUTA be­lieves could af­fect the smooth re­open­ing of schools on Mon­day.

Fi­garo said the as­so­ci­a­tion had been en­gag­ing the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion through­out Ju­ly and Au­gust and was as­sured that the Va­ca­tion Re­pair Pro­gramme was be­ing un­der­tak­en.

How­ev­er, when TTUTA spoke with school prin­ci­pals in mid-Au­gust, it dis­cov­ered that re­pairs had not yet be­gun at many in­sti­tu­tions.

Fi­garo said there were now se­ri­ous con­cerns about whether some in­sti­tu­tions would be ready.

He warned that while some schools may open, sec­tions of their com­pounds may not be suit­able for stu­dents or teach­ers.

Fi­garo said TTUTA ex­ec­u­tives had vis­it­ed al­most three dozen schools in re­cent days and found that many had re­ceived lit­tle or no at­ten­tion dur­ing the va­ca­tion pe­ri­od.

The prob­lems, he said, af­fect both pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools and ex­tend across Trinidad and To­ba­go.

He point­ed specif­i­cal­ly to the San Fer­nan­do Sev­enth-day Ad­ven­tist Pri­ma­ry School, which he said was still un­der­go­ing re­pairs de­spite hav­ing been closed dur­ing the fi­nal two weeks of the last school term.

“They would have on­ly start­ed their work last week,” Fi­garo said.

Con­cerns over Venezue­lan stu­dents

Fi­garo al­so raised con­cerns about the in­creas­ing num­ber of Venezue­lan stu­dents be­ing reg­is­tered with­in the lo­cal ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.

While ac­knowl­edg­ing their pres­ence in both pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools, he said TTUTA had re­peat­ed­ly raised con­cerns about the chal­lenges cre­at­ed by lan­guage bar­ri­ers.

“We raised with the min­istry on a cou­ple of oc­ca­sions, there are se­ri­ous lan­guage bar­ri­ers that af­fects the teach­ing and learn­ing process.”

“Be­cause of these lan­guage bar­ri­ers, the stu­dents are not ful­ly en­gaged.”

Fi­garo said TTUTA had al­so re­ceived re­ports of be­hav­iour­al is­sues in­volv­ing some stu­dents and warned that teach­ers were al­ready fac­ing in­creas­ing pres­sure in class­rooms.

He said the sit­u­a­tion was be­ing com­pound­ed by the non-re­new­al of con­tracts for sup­port staff and learn­ing as­sis­tants who as­sist stu­dents with spe­cial needs.

Min­istry gets ‘D’ grade

Against the back­drop of un­fin­ished re­pairs, de­lays with book grants, in­ad­e­quate school fund­ing and con­cerns about learn­ing sup­port, Fi­garo gave the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion a poor as­sess­ment for its over­all pre­pared­ness ahead of the new aca­d­e­m­ic term.

He said TTUTA had con­sid­ered sev­er­al fac­tors, in­clud­ing in­ad­e­quate and bro­ken fur­ni­ture, school in­fra­struc­ture and the lack of ad­e­quate learn­ing sup­port.

He al­so ques­tioned the Min­istry’s push to­wards tech­nol­o­gy and ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence in schools when some in­sti­tu­tions still lacked re­li­able in­ter­net in­fra­struc­ture.

“Schools are not equipped with in­ter­net,” he said.

“I’m see­ing where the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion re­al­ly would have launched their AI books to be placed in the sec­ondary school, but they are now spend­ing mon­ey on these dif­fer­ent things, but the in­fra­struc­ture for the im­ple­men­ta­tion is not there.”

Asked to grade the Min­istry’s over­all han­dling of the va­ca­tion re­pair pro­gramme and prepa­ra­tions for the new school term, Fi­garo said there was room for im­prove­ment.

“So over­all, I would have to give them a fail­ing grade, maybe a D, or a D-mi­nus,” he said.

“Be­cause at the end of the day, yes, they are mak­ing at­tempts, but I don’t think the as­so­ci­a­tion thinks that they are putting the at­tempts in the places that it needs to be.”