Ministry praises teachers, principals, parents

THE Ministry of Education continued discussions with relevant stakeholders on Tuesday, on schools reopening in September.

At a virtual meeting, the ministry praised teachers, principals and parents on a successful reopening on Monday for Standard 5 students preparing for SEA exams on August 20.

“As students have returned to the classroom to prepare for the SEA, the ministry will continue to engage stakeholders to facilitate the successful reopening of all schools for the new term,” said a release from the ministry on Tuesday.

It said the virtual meeting engaged stakeholders including the National Advisory Committee on Education, TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), the National Primary Schools Principals Association, the National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA), the Denominational Board and other interest groups.

“The ministry and stakeholders were able to effectively ventilate the realities of the day to day operations of a school in the new academic year.

“Areas covered included teacher training, physical distancing, rotation of students, home-based learning, Ministry of Health guidelines and other areas of concern.”

Lance Mottley, president of the National Primary Schools Principals Association, said while it is still too early to have a plan for September, discussions are continuing. For now, the focus is on students who are now at school.

He said that in the meeting, physical distancing and other issues related to covid19 protocols were discussed.

He said one of the things  learned from the partial reopening on Monday is that physical distancing outside the classroom is still a major challenge.

“We didn’t require them to be out to know that. It is the nature of children to be social. That is going to be a challenge moving forward (and) something that requires further discussion.” As for the preparedness of schools, Mottley said some schools are still receiving supplies.

“There are still some outstanding things like hand sanitisers in some schools, but it is not widespread.”

He said most schools have received the supplies they need to accommodate the students and teachers who have returned. Mottley said he had no reports of parents or students not returning to school for fear of contracting the virus.