Gadsby-Dolly: Physical school as important as online

Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly says while the Education Ministry is putting measures in place to accommodate online schooling, the agenda is to get children back out to face-to-face school to be able to interact with teachers and each other.

At the commissioning of the Jennifer Beckles Performing Arts Centre and the Joanne Mahadeo Science Block at the St Augustine Girls’ High School (SAGHS) on Monday, Gadsby-Dolly – a past student of the school, said a key part of being in school physically was interacting with teachers and other students.

“Our future lies in brick and mortar as well as online. Online will be the best we can make it, but what I got from teachers cannot be transmitted online, so we continue to invest in schools. “We understand the best for our students at this present time is the mix of the two, but they need that physical interaction with their teachers, to learn and to understand, and to get from them the type of morals, training, the unofficial curriculum that they pass on to their students, that I have benefitted from as a student at SAGHS, that others here from schools all over the country have gotten.

“We benefit from more than academics, we benefit from seeing our teachers and hearing them give us life advice all through the classroom, going to them with different events and seeing them in different spaces and them passing on that knowledge to us, that is what we want for our children, we got it, and we want it for them.”

Gadsby-Dolly spoke passionately about the measures the ministry is putting in place for virtual schooling but said they were being carried out in the context of getting children back out.

“We are staffing the educational technology unit at the ministry, optimising the learning management system (LMS), and delivering devices to our students.

“Working with iGovTT, we are taking possession of the MiFi devices in the next two weeks to give to students who need them. We are training teachers and virtually reopening schools on September 6.

“In the first two weeks we are taking care of the mental health of our teachers and students, ensuring that our Student Services Division provides that to them, and we’re doing diagnostics so we can see where the learning loss is, and amending the curriculum in the different schools to reach the students where they are.

“We are evaluating e-book tenders and RFPs for literacy and numeracy online solution so our students, while online, can self-address these areas to address any learning loss, but we are doing it in the context of hoping our children get back out to school.”

She called on parents to get their children vaccinated as this would give them the best chance in the global environment.

“The vaccine hesitancy we’re seeing represents a microcosm of the society, and some of it isn’t hesitancy, it’s just ambivalence.

“I think it’s very important with all of our parents. They have to make the decision to give their students and their children that layer of protection, because we cannot leave them home forever. And once they get out there, I as a parent want to know that my child is as best protected as possible.”

Presbyterian Secondary Schools’ Board of Education president Ashford Tamby said 60 per cent of the teachers at each school run by the board are vaccinated.

“We have five secondary schools – Hillview College, St Augustine Girls, Naparima College, Naparima Girls High School and Iere High School, and out of those at each school at least 60 per cent of the teachers have been vaccinated.

“With the other 40 per cent, we continue to encourage them, but a lot of them have medical problems so those are the reasons why. And that is what we say with the students, we deal with the students who cannot take the vaccine on a case-by-case basis so that once they can provide the medical evidence of why they can’t take it, we’ll continue to support them however we can.”

Tamby said the Presbyterian Church continues to encourage people to get vaccinated, but it did not want to infringe on the rights of the children, who would have the final say.

“We would only continue to educate and encourage them through the schools, through various campaigns that the schools have, and also we want to ensure that when the children do come out, that they are safe, and the teachers as well, so we don’t have to close schools again.”

Tamby said if there has to be a mix of schooling with unvaccinated children remaining at home while vaccinated children go out to school, this would be achieved with help from the various stakeholders.

“Each of the schools has past pupils’ associations that have and continue to assist students, even presently during the pandemic, in getting devices to students, accessibility to WiFi. So we have been doing it and we’ll just continue.”