Nearly 2,000 migrant children left out: 23 Venezuelans to start school

WHILE the doors of TT’s schools will open to 23 Venezuelan children next month, hundreds of others will remain locked outside the education system.

Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly listed all the preparations – legal, administrative and educational – to admit the young migrants, but Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds told reporters that about 2,000 Venezuelan minors were now in TT, including those not registered as migrants.

The duo spoke at a ceremony at the ministry on August 19 to present the parents of Venezuelan children with migrant student exemption letters.

Chief Education Officer Dr Peter Smith said the ministry had approved 111 Venezuelan children, of whom 23 were permitted to attend school in the new academic year.

Hinds said the schooling was aimed at children of Venezuelan migrants legally registered in TT in 2019.

He said the two ministries had designed a plan for migrant schooling, which was then sent to Cabinet, after which Parliament facilitated it by amending the Immigration Regulations.

Hinds said migration brings significant benefits but also poses challenges, such as illegal migration.

He boasted that TT’s migrant registration framework did not entail camps, jail or charges but let registered migrants live and work in TT with dignity.

Hinds said, likewise, the Government had granted permission to let Eastern Caribbean children affected by Hurricane Beryl attend school in TT, “a serious, civilised, stable democracy.”

Catholic Education Board chairman Sharon Mangroo said in 2019, the Prime Minister had said Roman Catholic schools could educate Venezuelan children. Archbishop Jason Gordon had met then-national security minister Stuart Young while the board got financial and technical support from Unicef.

Gadsby-Dolly recalled the preparations to register the children for school.

“We want to help the children but we had to do it in a lawful way.”

She said the work of the ministries of national security and the attorney general allowed the registration of migrant children.

She said the Ministry of Education could not act on emotion.

“TT is a small country, and as generous as we are, there are things we had to be careful about.

“It is no mean feat to get to this point.”

Gadsby-Dolly sounded an alert ahead of school re-opening.

“There may be a different reaction in schools. It will not all be easy sailing.”

She urged the parents and principals of the migrant children to work with them. She also encouraged local people.

“We are an island renowned for our tolerance and our ability to integrate others into our national psyche. Let it not be said they had a bad experience.”

Smith said the scheme was open to children under 18 whose parents registered in TT in 2019.

He said applications were made on behalf of 187 Venezuelan children, and after interviews, some 111 children were successful.

Smith listed challenges as expired documents, low rates of literacy and a lack of translators.

Of the 23 children approved, four will be placed at government schools, 18 at denominational schools and one at a private school, he said.

He said 334 migrant children were also assessed under an English language proficiency test by the Centre for Language Learning of UWI, St Augustine, to help in their placement.

Pointing the way forward, Smith anticipated the input of translation apps and online learning platforms, plus support from the US Embassy and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB.)

A reporter asked about the rest of the 2,000 Venezuelan minors in TT, apart from the 23 approved.

Gadsby-Dolly said while TT may have 2,000 migrant children, not all were at a point to get into schools.

“We have students who are already a cohort who are ready to come in. Twenty-three have been admitted.

“Some more of them are in the various stages of getting their documentation in order. So as they are ready, they come into the system.

“So it is not as if they are taking all students and putting them in schools.”

Asked about potential bullying of the migrants, she said, “The students who are getting into the school system now have been through a series of training and a programme that has readied them for this.”

Gadsby-Dolly added that the teachers have also been trained.

“You are not just taking students en masse and putting them into ‘any’ school.

“We are putting them into a system that has been prepared for them.”

The goal was for local pupils, and their parents and teachers, to create a welcoming environment for the migrants, she said.

“We are hoping that those types of sensitisation sessions will assist in getting the students into the school without too much transition or bullying.

“Again, once the system is in place and we can see what is happening at the individual schools – because individual schools will have different challenges – then we will see what is in place.”

V’zuelan activist: Discrimination against ‘illegal’ children

Newsday called Venezuelan social activist Yesenia Gonzalez after the ceremony. She dubbed the move “discriminatory” against children who were not lawfully in TT.

She lamented that Venezuelan children now in TT whose parents were not registered with the Ministry of National Security in 2019 were excluded from entering school in TT.

She alleged the Government was violating the human rights of unregistered children excluded from schooling.

She said it was discrimination to allow school admission only to registered children.

“What is different? Children are children. The first human rights law is to protect children and allow them to get education and medical attention.

“We are just asking for compassion.”

Saying all TT children go to school, she reckoned TT had enough space in schools for the unregistered young migrants.

Gonzalez had no figures as to the total number of Venezuelan children in TT but said the number fluctuated as they came and went between both countries.

Asked about how Venezuelan children were coping in TT outside of the school system, she said, “Venezuelan parents are really trying. They will give the children a little book.

“It is sad to see children not at school. It is a sad situation that not all the children could go to school.”

Gonzalez said she was glad for the 23 pupils but wanted all to be schooled.

Claiming Guyana educates all children regardless of status, she alleged TT is now in a “position of international embarrassment.”