Garcia: CSEC will be done online soon

PARLIAMENT adjourned at 12.10 am on yesterday, because of the lengthy discussions on the 2020 budget. This year, the Education Ministry was given the largest slice in the sum of $7.5 billion, which Education Minister Anthony Garcia said yesterday was not by chance, as the ministry is an amalgamation of three ministries– science and technology, tertiary education and education.

Speaking at the recognition ceremony for the top 200 students who wrote the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exams, Garcia said governments pay a lot of attention to education, and tremendous resources are put into the sector. His ministry will do the same as it focuses on technology and and the arts.

“In dealing with the digital age, when SEA students are about to write Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), that will be done strictly online,” he told the students during the ceremony at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA), San Fernando.

“In order to be successful in this, the Education Ministry is training more than 1,200 teachers in information and communications technology (ICT),” Garcia said. The ministry, he said, is now looking at training students in ICT so they can prepare for the use of digital technology in studies and exams.

He told students that Government will monitor their progress and assist them until their secondary school education is completed. “If our country is to progress, then we must put our human resources in place and you are the best in human resources that any country could have,” he said.

Garcia also outlined that in secondary schools, students will be exposed to a changed curriculum which will include design, animation and tourism.

Schools will explore the use of the visual and performing arts programmes in the teaching of any subject. “We want to make sure that our students are well-rounded,” he said. Parental involvement is of extreme importance, he said, and his ministry is asking every school to have an active parent-teacher association.

In celebrating the success of the top students, he said there are 2,000 who did not do as well and the ministry must not leave them out. “We have adapted the curriculum so as to meet their needs and give them the support as well,” he said.

He told the principals present that Government has provided support for them and school supervisors will meet with them on a regular basis. “The image of the principal is the image of the school,” he said.

Garcia recognised president of the TT Unified Teachers’ Association, Lynsley Doodhai saying while TUTTA and the ministry are at odds, referring to the union's recent protest over salaries, as Doodhai leads his troops, he once lead troops as head of TUTTA. “We find no fault that teachers at times, will want to demonstrate for their cause,” he said.

Garcia will fill in for the prime minister at the formal opening of the teachers’ centre today.

Top SEA student Siri Vadlamundi, now a student of the Naparima Girls' High School, also spoke about her success.