Under the current administration, Trinidad and Tobago has achieved Universal Early Childhood Education. There are more than 300 such schools in the country, both government and government-assisted; out of that, 71 are run by SERVOL, providing education for about 15,000 students. “We have partnered with 200 private sector ECCE centres; they are also providing another 10,000 spaces,” Gopeesingh stated. “We are now paying for 7,000 spaces, as they come on board,” he added. “Cabinet passed a note to pay for spaces for the entire 36,000 children, if it is necessary. And there are another 300 private sector people who are providing Early Childhood Education; their parents have opted to pay for their children. But the government is committed to paying for every child, aged three and four in the country, to receive an Early Childhood Education. In fact, there are about 23,000 now, receiving free Early Childhood Education.” The ministry has come up with 16 areas of priority, one of which is parenting. Within the last year, more than 12,000 parents have participated in over 300 parenting workshops and a Parenting Academy has been formed with support from the Student Support Services of the Ministry of Education. The ministry has been taking a holistic approach and the training of teachers is of the utmost importance. Thus far, the Infants 1 and 2 teachers were trained in the teaching of ‘Beginning Reading’. The ministry also prepared model classrooms for the Infant level teachers to replicate, provided follow-up training for the Infant 2 teachers, selected and provided the programme coordinator and four monitors, all of whom visit the school to offer guidance and support as the children learn to read. The ministry has also provided 4,000 workbooks for the Infant level pupils. Technology in the Classroom Trinidad and Tobago is keeping up with technology: 300 primary schools are equipped with computer labs and the other 150 will receive their labs before September 2015. More than 150 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) technicians service these labs across the country. Trinidad and Tobago has been selected as the centre for the Virtual Education for Latin America and the Caribbean, partnering with Samsung to be one of the few countries in the world
with 21st century smart classrooms. “We have 20 schools with 21st century smart classrooms out of the 600 that Samsung is doing worldwide and we intend on multiplying this as well,” stated Gopeesingh. Update on Tertiary Level Education With regard to tertiary education, the recently established San Fernando Teaching Hospital is a state-of-the-art hospital bed tower and outpatient ambulatory clinic with parking and support services. The hospital serves as an extension of the San Fernando General Hospital and houses 216 beds to help alleviate overcrowding, while creating more opportunities for training doctors. The El Dorado Nursing Academy is solely dedicated to the training of nurses and allied health care workers. This will help to address the shortage of nurses and health care professionals in the country. The academy, a TTD 42 million project, is a joint venture of the College of Science, Technology & Applied Art of Trinidad & Tobago (COSTAATT), The University of the West Indies and the St. Augustine Education City. With the shortage of local dentists, the Minister of Tertiary Education and Skills Training, Fazal Karim, has promised to expand the GATE programme to include Postgraduate degrees in Dentistry. The University of the West Indies School of Dentistry, established since 1989, is being expanded with the construction of a building that covers 26,703 square feet. Previously enrolling 30 students per year, the school, once completed, will enrol 70 students per year. Meanwhile, the COSTAATT state-ofthe-art, multipurpose campus will soon be constructed at Pierre Connector Road, Chaguanas. It aims at supporting
the central growth pole, which includes light industrial development, services industries and creative industries. Additionally, the Ken Gordon School of Journalism and Communication Studies will, in May 2016, produce its first school newspaper, launch its first television and radio station, and establish a COSTAATT media centre at the main campus. Much is happening in the education sector and more is being planned. According to Karim, through the GATE programme, young people will have the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills, and acquire the aptitude for jobs designed to help improve lives. Other Updates • Construction of a campus of UWI at Debe to increase university spaces in Law • Expansion of COSTAATT in Sangre Grande to accommodate 1,500 students • Distribution of sports equipment to schools and communities • Increase in the number of open and national scholarships since 2010, now averaging about 400+ • Serving of more than 155,000 meals daily (nearly 100,000 lunches and 55,000 breakfasts) for students in the ECCEs, primary and secondary schools — almost 300 ECCEs, 125 secondary schools and 476 primary schools are included, bringing the annual meal total to 3 million, at an approximate cost of TTD 250 million • Creation of a Draft National School Nutrition Policy by teams from the Ministry of Education and the National School Feeding Programme, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health
Fast Facts Academic Achievement in 2014 SEA
Two out of three students received over 60% Three out of four obtained more than 50% Number of students getting less than 30% down to 5%, from 14% in 2010
CSEC Maths pass rate moved from 39% to 57% Language Arts pass rate moved from 38% to 55% CAPE 94% pass rate at CAPE Units I and II, with 1:9 students obtaining scholarships Over 470 scholarships awarded in 2014
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
New Infrastructure and Training
Source: Corporate Communications Department, Ministry of Education.
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