Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said yes­ter­day that arrange­ments are in place to wel­come lo­cal and mi­grant chil­dren in­to pub­lic schools when class­es re­sume in Sep­tem­ber.

The min­is­ter, who spoke to re­porters at a Kids’ Health and Well­ness Check-Up Clin­ic at the Mt Hope Women’s Hos­pi­tal, said the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has been li­ais­ing with the Catholic Ed­u­ca­tion Board of Man­age­ment (CEBM) and the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to en­sure there will be a seam­less process.

She said the usu­al prepa­ra­tions are be­ing made for the re­open­ing of schools.

“Teach­ers and prin­ci­pals are set to come out to school on the Fri­day of next week, as they take part in the prepa­ra­tions for schools’ open­ing,” she said.

Com­ment­ing on the en­try of Venezue­lan mi­grant chil­dren in­to the lo­cal school sys­tem, Gads­by-Dol­ly said: “In 2019, the MOE, the CEBM, the Liv­ing Wa­ter Com­mu­ni­ty and the UN­HCR would have come to­geth­er to for­mu­late a pro­gramme for ed­u­cat­ing the mi­grant chil­dren so that has been on­go­ing and at this time what is be­ing con­tem­plat­ed is bring­ing some of the stu­dents that are ready for in­te­gra­tion, in that catch­ment in­to the school pop­u­la­tion.”

She said the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus is in­volved: “They are work­ing to as­cer­tain which stu­dents are ready for in­te­gra­tion and at which lev­el.”

The CEBM has been re­spon­si­ble for de­ter­min­ing which schools these stu­dents will be en­rolled in.

“What needs to hap­pen now is a dis­cus­sion with the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty’s Im­mi­gra­tion be­cause for­eign stu­dents do re­quire a stu­dent’s per­mit to at­tend lo­cal schools,” she said.

“The mi­grant stu­dents have to get that stu­dent’s per­mit and some arrange­ment has to be made with the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, which is re­quired by law.”

Gads­by-Dol­ly said dis­cus­sions have al­ready start­ed and the le­gal­i­ties are still be­ing sort­ed. Once com­plet­ed, the mi­grant chil­dren will be in­te­grat­ed in­to the school sys­tem.

She said they need­ed to en­sure the stu­dents are vac­ci­nat­ed as some had en­tered the coun­try with­out prop­er im­mu­niza­tions.

At the clin­ic yes­ter­day, the min­is­ter urged par­ents and stu­dents to adopt a health­i­er lifestyles, in­clud­ing re­duc­ing their dai­ly sug­ar in­take, ex­er­cis­ing more, and in­clud­ing fruits and veg­eta­bles in their dai­ly di­ets.

This was re­in­forced by Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh who said sev­er­al ini­tia­tives un­der his purview aimed at in­creas­ing aware­ness and re­duc­ing non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases among adults and chil­dren have been gain­ing trac­tion.

He said he was pleased at the at­ten­dance at the TT Moves clin­ics held yes­ter­day in San Fer­nan­do and Mt Hope which saw hun­dreds of adults and chil­dren turn­ing out for med­ical check-ups.