UNC Star Team promises compulsory Spanish, starting in pre-school

THE STAR Team, which is contesting the United National Congress (UNC) internal elections, has promised to introduce Spanish as a compulsory subject in all schools and implement computer technology and software development as core parts of the syllabus.

UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, endorsing the Star Team slate for the June 15 elections, shared a host of ideas she said will be implemented if the UNC, backed by its Star Team, wins the next general election.

Persad-Bissessar said major changes are needed in the education sector to allow Trinidad and Tobago to build connections with nearby Spanish-speaking countries.

A UNC government, she said, would "implement Spanish as a compulsory second language in all schools, from pre-school level right up.

“Why do I say that? Not because there are Venezuelan migrants here, (but) because right next to us is the whole of Latin America, South America. The majority speak Spanish, and we should pursue (more agreements) with that side of the world.”

At present Spanish is only compulsory in some secondary schools up to a certain grade depending on the school.

Computer technology and software development should be added to the curriculum “as a matter of urgency,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar also promised to lower corporation taxes to a minimum of 18 per cent over the next five years; waive property taxes on plant, equipment and land for local manufacturers; pursue double taxation agreements with more countries in South America and Commonwealth countries; strengthen legislation to protect minority shareholders; and implement measures to improve ease of doing business in Trinidad and Tobago.

She said she was not interested in sharing her ideas with the government after proposing over 100 anti-crime measures, which she said were ignored. The government has “provided not one and want to ask me to come talk with them,” Persad-Bissessar said.

“I am not talking with any of them; not one of them. As Rowley told us when we were in government, we shall isolate them and call for the elections.

“I wrote him a letter and he say the letter was too long. He said the letter was voluminous, because in that letter I put in many of our suggestions to fight crime. So that fella is not serious.”

Training her guns on Rushton Paray’s United Patriots – the Star Team’s internal election opponents – she said the slate has “only brought crassness, abuse (and) insults, aimed at the UNC membership.

“They have exhibited the lowest form of campaigning we have ever witnessed. I am referring to the PNM ‘A’ team and the PNM ‘B’ team.

“The Star Team is about love and loyalty. The UNC comes first. The other slate is about ungratefulness. Why else would they try to destabilise and sabotage our great party as we’re going into a general election?”

She referred to United Patriots as a slate of “dissident MPs,” who she said had never made a memorable contribution to Parliament.

“They have been hiding from you and the Parliament. They cannot talk in Parliament; they always running and hiding from the PNM.

"If we always have to protect these weak dissidents from the PNM, how will they protect you? They cannot.”