Education Division to ask private sector for support

THE Tobago private sector is being asked to offer assistance to overcome the challenges of the new school term.

In an interview with Newsday on Friday, THA Education Secretary Kelvin Charles said the division is engaging the business community to help bridge the gap to ensure all students are able to work from home. The new school term begins on Monday.

He noted that coming out of a committee meeting recently with stakeholders, it was identified that there are approximately 4,000 students without laptops, tablets or personal computers.

“Efforts are being made to acquire these from public and private sources. We intend to write to them, but it is a work in progress... it is ongoing. One has promised, but we’re not sure of the numbers as yet,” he said.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Education handed over 70 laptops to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) teachers and 98 laptops to public schools for students with special needs.

Charles said special schools in Tobago did receive some devices and while he could not recall the figure, he said they were not from the Ministry of Education.

The Ministry of Education recently announced school work will be broadcast on cable TV for children from infants year two stage to standard five.