Gadsby-Dolly: 90% of pupils now online

DESPITE describing the current climate for schooling during the ongoing covid19 crisis as “extremely challenging,” Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly boasted that 90 per cent of TT’s pupils are now engaged in online learning, with the other ten per cent receiving packaged work as either printed or electronic material.

She spoke in Monday’s budget debate in the House of Representatives. Like 96 per cent of the world, TT has shut its schools but has acted to ensure a continuity of learning. From March to August, her ministry allowed teachers to access its Learning Management System (LMS.)

“That allowed teachers to upload lessons, conduct ‘live’ video sessions and interact with students online.” Demand was so high the system had to be upgraded several times, she said.

“The ministry is focused on providing the framework for home-based learning (and) providing teachers and students with devices, training and resources for home-based learning."

She said the ministry is sourcing funds to supply e-books, providing a robust LMS for students, parents, teachers, administrators and policy-makers, and designing a framework for blended learning and the integration of technology into the curriculum. She hoped the gains made over this critical time would become a permanent feature of the education system.

“I want to take the opportunity to thank the teachers and parents for the very hard work in monitoring, preparing, and guiding our students during this term. “It has not been easy. I speak as a parent myself. We truly are in this all together.”

The ministry’s platform has learning materials for teachers, who she said have “grabbed opportunities with both hands” to upskill, such as by training online at the Commonwealth of Learning.

“The Ministry of Education, following the best-practice approach of using multiple platforms to deliver curricula, has provided resource materials via the LMS suitable for use in the online environment or in the printed packages,” she elaborated.

Gadsby-Dolly said the ministry is also broadcasting lessons/learning materials on TTT and radio, and via printed pullouts in newspapers. Her ministry has sourced 5,000 devices to equip some teachers and special-needs pupils for virtual learning.

“All teachers who indicated a need have been given laptops and also the students at our special public schools.”

Replying to the Opposition’s ongoing criticism that the Government had stopped its predecessor's school laptop programme, Gadsby-Dolly said those devices had been “substandard and overpriced.”

She said facilitating online learning was not just about supplying laptops but rather a whole package which also included upskilling, curriculum, connectivity and blended learning.

Gadsby-Dolly promised a review of the LMS, plus consultation on the SEA exam and the education Concordat.

Saying now is an apt time to take stock of the kind of citizen TT is producing and the problem of school truancy, Gadsby-Dolly said no learner must be left behind online but pupils must enjoy a social safety net.

“Some of these students may be missing from the classroom, but we find them in other places where we don’t want to find them.”

Telling Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein not to beat his chest if he has helped people, she said his constituents were free to seek help from her.