Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, Dr Michael Dowlath, says while many schools are “op­er­at­ing on life sup­port,” he has called for greater col­lab­o­ra­tion to deal with the chal­lenges sec­ondary schools are fac­ing to­day.

Dowlath was speak­ing at a vale­dic­to­ry func­tion for re­tired prin­ci­pals host­ed by the As­so­ci­a­tion of Prin­ci­pals of Pub­lic Sec­ondary Schools of Trinidad and To­ba­go (APPSS) at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Ch­agua­nas, on Sat­ur­day.

The as­so­ci­a­tion pre­sent­ed awards to 17 re­tired prin­ci­pals across sev­en ed­u­ca­tion­al dis­tricts.

Dowlath said, “We still have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for those com­ing af­ter us – the re­tirees es­pe­cial­ly. Many of our schools op­er­ate on life sup­port. It was re­al­ly amaz­ing that we could have had al­most all of them up on Sep­tem­ber 8... As I con­grat­u­late you, I ask you as an or­gan­i­sa­tion to be a life sup­port for your col­leagues, to de­vel­op a com­mu­ni­ty of pro­fes­sion­als where you can share your best prac­tice.”

Though the prin­ci­pals have now re­tired, Dowlath chal­lenged them to con­tin­ue to be lead­ers with­in their own realm.

He added, “I want us to con­tin­ue to serve as am­bas­sadors of ex­cel­lence. I want you to reach out to your com­mu­ni­ties. You are known for the good you would have done, and I want you to con­tin­ue in your heart to lead wher­ev­er your path in life takes you.”

Dowlath was a for­mer prin­ci­pal of Iere High School be­fore mov­ing on to be the prin­ci­pal of Na­pari­ma Col­lege. He re­tired in 2021, hav­ing served as prin­ci­pal for 15 years at the lat­ter.

Mean­while, the pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (NPTA), Wal­ter Stew­art, said that the prin­ci­pals were re­tir­ing at a time when they were need­ed most, and all hands are need­ed on deck.

He point­ed to da­ta re­cent­ly re­leased by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) that 33 stu­dents had been ar­rest­ed and 63 sus­pend­ed.

He al­so called on Dowlath to en­sure that when school prin­ci­pals are re­tir­ing, they are af­ford­ed their gra­tu­ity cheque as well.

Dowlath ac­knowl­edged the call at the start of his speech.

Pres­i­dent of APPSS, Shar­lene Hicks-Rae­burn, an­nounced the as­so­ci­a­tion will soon es­tab­lish a re­tirees’ arm through which they are able to con­tin­ue us­ing their in­sti­tu­tion­al knowl­edge to en­hance the school sys­tem.

She said, “Our ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem is grap­pling with sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges, and many ad­min­is­tra­tors recog­nise that we are at a crit­i­cal junc­ture, one that de­mands crit­i­cal at­ten­tion and a com­pre­hen­sive re­set to ad­dress the cri­sis at hand and re­store the stan­dards that we as­pire to up­hold.”

The theme of the event was Cel­e­brat­ing lead­er­ship: A lega­cy of com­mit­ment, in­no­va­tion and suc­cess.

Al­so at­tend­ing the event was the pres­i­dent of the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA), Crys­tal Ashe, who said be­ing a school prin­ci­pal is no easy task while con­grat­u­lat­ing the awardees on their ca­reer and con­tri­bu­tions to the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem in this coun­try.

As­so­ci­a­tion of Prin­ci­pals of Pub­lic Sec­ondary Schools 2025 Awardees

Denise Mun­gal-Gosyne - Cou­va East Sec­ondary

George Dot­tin - Mir­a­cle Min­istries Pen­te­costal High School

Paulette Reefer - Holy Faith Con­vent, Cou­va

Gary Ribeiro - Holy Cross Col­lege

Shar­lyne Fox-Damani - North East­ern Col­lege

An­na Pounder - St Joseph’s Con­vent, Port-of-Spain

Der­rick Phillip - East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary

Pa­tri­cia Gopie - Tu­na­puna Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary

Har­ry Jaikaran - Mal­ick Sec­ondary

Wazir Mustapha - St Joseph Sec­ondary

Cyn­thia Pan­choo-Seenath - Ce­dros Sec­ondary

Sher­ron Oth­el­lo-Branche - Fyz­abad Sec­ondary

Karen Her­ry-Mark - Holy Name Con­vent, Point Fortin

Gail Ra­moutars­ingh - Pe­nal Sec­ondary

Pearl Vashti Tikah - Biche Sec­ondary

Joy Ar­joon Singh - Ste Madeleine Sec­ondary

Dex­ter Mitchell - Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do