Gadsby-Dolly: Trinidad and Tobago must join digital revolution

Education minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly says the world is experiencing a digital revolution, and if Trinidad and Tobago does not get on board now the country will be left behind.

“As we face our 60th year (of TT independence), we are now saying to the world that we can develop our own digital professional cadre. And should we fail to do that, to develop our own cadre, we will not only fail to achieve Vision 2030, but we will be unable to take our rightful place in a world where the future is digital.”

She made the statement at the launch of the Shell Digitalisation Academy at the Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain on Friday.

As the official partner of Shell Trinidad in its national science, technology, research, engineering, arts and math programme for the past five years, the National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (Niherst) will facilitate the pilot programme.

Registered secondary and tertiary students will learn critical elements about artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality from industry experts from August 15-26 at UTT's John S Donaldson campus, Port of Spain, and UTT Point Lisas campus.

Gadsby-Dolly said the future is digital so it is vital to harness the country’s “digital economy” to ensure the best future for TT. She said the ministry was tasked with facilitating the creation and development of citizens who could integrate digital elements into daily activities, and had to develop professionals in various digital fields.

She added that the education system could not operate in a digital world while continuing to use large numbers of paper files which were easily lost and created inefficiencies. She said it had to include online records of students and staff, virtual classrooms, human resource records, use of e-books, involving artificial intelligence in literacy and numeracy, e-testing and more.

“As we (the ministry) look forward to a digital future and how we must operate, we look forward to ensuring that the citizens we are training can take their place and can carry TT along with them on that trajectory into the future.”

She said covid19 brought about a lot of rapid changes from physical to virtual classrooms, smartphones being part of the learning experience, and a change in focus from writing to typing skills.

She believed all sectors needed to come onboard to help the youths adjust, and encouraged corporations to “make corporate responsibility count” for the children to TT.

“If we never needed you before, we certainly need you now as a part of our village. So if you’re not helping a school, if you’re not furthering education in some way, it means that you have work to do. There’s room for you.”

Speaking with Newsday after the event, Gadsby-Dolly said there would be a meeting with education stakeholders this week to review school guidelines, including mask-wearing.