Haynes: Come clean with TT on virtual learning

Opposition MP for Tabaquite Anita Haynes has called on Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly to come clean with TT and give accurate data about virtual learning in the country.

She made the call at a press conference at the Office of the Leader of Opposition, Charles Street, Port of Spain on Sunday.

She said the minister should also be honest about the fact that accurate data had not been collected over time.

“Therefore your policy-making is flawed, because it is based on subjective analysis rather than any qualitative data.”

Haynes also addressed the recent revelation from the Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration last Wednesday that 46,770 students at both primary and secondary level never logged on to portals facilitating online learning.

She said the Government, through its “progressively backward policies,” was disadvantaging an entire next generation of Trinidadians.

Haynes said the opposition was very aware that covid19 is a pandemic and poses serious challenges but that, “No government on earth needed a pandemic to let them know that technology was required for education in 2020/2021 and beyond.”

She said had the People’s Partnership (PP) laptop programme continued - it was in existence from 2010-2015 - Trinidad and Tobago would have been in a much different place when the pandemic hit.

She said the laptop programme was scrapped without reason.

“We would have been told there was a cost factor associated, but if you check the budgets, between $5 and $6 billion was always allocated to the Ministry of Education.

"So we do not accept that money was the issue. It was just a lack of ideas and an unwillingness to allow equitable access to technology across our education sector.”

She said the "over 50,000" students who have not accessed TT’s virtual learning platforms did not take into account students who may have logged in but do not do so consistently.

“So we are looking at a new generation of Trinidadians and Tobagonians who are going into the future without accessing this primary and secondary education,” she said.

She said while the discussion around TT’s education sector has focused mainly on devices, TT also needs to be aware of what goes beyond access to a device, which includes connectivity.

She said herself and several other MPs are faced with constituents who, while they may have a donated device, have no connectivity. She added students in rural communities were further disadvantaged since even if they had a device, they were still unable to access the learning platforms because they are not connected to the internet.

She said in last year's budget debate TT was told mifi was on its way and it was now the end of January 2021 and there was no accountability as to whether or not anything was given out.

She said some schools were very equipped to move online and have online platforms and serve their students well. Haynes said others were finding others difficulty in meeting what is needed for standardised access to education at this time.

The world celebrated International Day of Education on Sunday. In a release last week the Education Ministry said, in September last year, acknowledging that not all students had access to online education, it implemented, alongside the virtual system, the printed package system, as was being done the world over.

It added that educational material through various channels such as social media and television was also available.

“In addition to these measures, the Ministry of Education reached out to the private sector, encouraging the donation of devices, through which 11,079 have been donated to children nationwide, out of a total number of 22,053 pledges,” the release said.