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Sunday, July 13, 2025

Better leadership needed in schools—Priest

by

Radhica Sookraj
2437 days ago
20181109
Monsignor Christian Pereira greets teachers from the Catholic Teachers Association of Trinidad and Tobago as they held their 66th annual convention at St Benedict’s RC Church La Romaine.

Monsignor Christian Pereira greets teachers from the Catholic Teachers Association of Trinidad and Tobago as they held their 66th annual convention at St Benedict’s RC Church La Romaine.

Kristian De Silva

Teach­ers can blos­som as ed­u­ca­tors if there is prop­er lead­er­ship from prin­ci­pals and a strong sup­port from par­ents says Ro­man Catholic priest Mon­sign­or Chris­t­ian Per­reira.

He was speak­ing to re­porters at the 66th an­nu­al Con­ven­tion of the Catholic Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go held at the St Bene­dict’s Ro­man Catholic Church yes­ter­day. Per­reira said many schools were fac­ing chal­lenges be­cause of the in­fil­tra­tion of crime and drugs.

How­ev­er, he said spe­cial pro­grammes were be­ing held at schools to ed­u­cate stu­dents about the dan­gers.

Say­ing the col­lege was un­der­go­ing a pe­ri­od of tran­si­tion, Per­reira said some in­fra­struc­tur­al prob­lems com­bined with so­cial ills had af­fect­ed some stu­dents. How­ev­er, he said the gov­ern­ment had promised to grant 14 acres of land to the RC Church so that a new St Bene­dicts Col­lege could be con­struct­ed.

“At this time the col­lege is in a bit of tran­si­tion as we look­ing to ex­pand and move for­ward a bit with the col­lege. We are hop­ing to get the sup­port of the Min­istry and the col­lege for the nec­es­sary land. We are hap­py with the way things are go­ing. The La Ro­maine RC is show­ing a great sign of re­vival in terms of their aca­d­e­mics and the spir­it of the teach­ers and the stu­dents. I know in a few oth­er ar­eas in TT, the pri­ma­ry schools un­der the par­tic­u­lar lead­er­ship are show­ing a great com­mit­ment to build­ing the young peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ties,” Per­reira said.

Say­ing he was con­scious of the drug trade and the re­al­i­ties it posed, Per­reira said, “We had a big fu­ner­al for a drug deal­er who want­ed to re­form his life but got killed. His son is in our First Com­mu­nion class. Drugs are not the most im­por­tant thing to look af­ter. We are con­cern about it. We are con­cerned about the in­fil­tra­tion of drugs and crime in the com­mu­ni­ty but we are al­so try­ing to build the ca­pa­bil­i­ty of the com­mu­ni­ty,” Per­reira added.

He de­nied that teach­ers were not equipped to make a dif­fer­ence in the lives of stu­dents.

“We need strong lead­er­ship in schools to en­able teach­ers to give all that they can. Teach­ers are equipped and ca­pa­ble. We need to see greater team­work among staff, greater lead­er­ship from prin­ci­pals and greater sup­port from the PTA and Busi­ness As­so­ci­a­tions. This will en­able teach­ers to blos­som. We trust that they will give of them­selves and put trust in God to re­vive the Catholic iden­ti­ty in schools,” Per­reira added.

He added that once the gov­ern­ment grants the land the church can move for­ward with de­signs and its vi­sion for a new St Bene­dicts Col­lege. Per­reira said they hoped that the new col­lege can be built with­in the next few years.


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