Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly says Mi­Fi de­vices to boost In­ter­net con­nec­tiv­i­ty at schools are avail­able on re­quest, while more than 8,000 teach­ers have re­ceived lap­tops.

Gads­by-Dol­ly dis­closed the in­for­ma­tion yes­ter­day, as she re­spond­ed to com­plaints by stake­hold­ers in the ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor that teach­ers who have re­turned to the phys­i­cal class­room are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing con­nec­tiv­i­ty is­sues that are im­pact­ing on­line teach­ing.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA), which led a black­out protest that saw teach­ers un­plug­ging their de­vices on Sep­tem­ber 30 and on Tues­day, had al­so raised is­sues about teach­ers hav­ing to use per­son­al de­vices for on­line teach­ing be­cause the min­istry had not pro­vid­ed any.

Asked about these is­sues, the min­is­ter, via What­sapp Mes­sen­ger, said, “The MoE (Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion) has ad­vised all schools that Mi­Fi de­vices will be made avail­able for as­sis­tance with con­nec­tiv­i­ty, up­on re­quest and sub­ject to avail­abil­i­ty. These are be­ing sup­plied cur­rent­ly as re­quests come in.

“The min­istry has crossed 8,000 lap­tops dis­trib­uted to teach­ers to date. This is on­go­ing at this time. We have ap­prox­i­mate­ly 13,000 teach­ers on record. Not all have re­quest­ed MoE lap­tops.”

Asked about the let­ter de­liv­ered by par­ents to the min­istry on Mon­day, the min­is­ter said that a re­ply has been sent.

Gads­by-Dol­ly al­so de­nied stu­dents are be­ing de­prived of an ed­u­ca­tion.

“We must tran­si­tion back to the phys­i­cal class­room and we are do­ing so care­ful­ly - with our chil­dren’s safe­ty as para­mount. On­line ed­u­ca­tion can­not and will not re­place the face-to-face ed­u­ca­tion of our stu­dents at EC­CE, pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary lev­els.

“The first step is to al­low the vac­ci­nat­ed Forms 4-6 stu­dents to come out. Once their cir­cu­la­tion and that of teach­ers does not im­pact the health sit­u­a­tion neg­a­tive­ly, we can make fur­ther de­ci­sions about the next phase of stu­dents to come out to phys­i­cal school.

“This time of tran­si­tion back to the phys­i­cal class­room means that the on­line en­vi­ron­ment will un­der­go some changes.”

She agreed with TTUTA that the teach­ers’ work­load must be con­sid­ered.

“The re­al­i­ty is that if teach­ers are out phys­i­cal­ly, ad­just­ments will have to be made to on­line de­liv­ery - in all cas­es; it can­not be busi­ness as usu­al,” Gads­by-Dol­ly said.

But while schools are mak­ing every ef­fort, the min­is­ter said par­ents must be un­der­stand­ing and co-op­er­a­tive dur­ing this time.

“Again, the call is be­ing made to par­ents to vac­ci­nate chil­dren and al­low them the best chance of suc­cess at phys­i­cal school. The Gov­ern­ment is do­ing all it can to bring our stu­dents safe­ly out, co­hort by co­hort, to re­sume phys­i­cal school.”

Mean­while, Tabaquite MP Ani­ta Haynes is ques­tion­ing if the the min­istry has re­opened phys­i­cal schools for vac­ci­nat­ed chil­dren in Forms 4,5 and 6 with­out tak­ing in­to ac­count key con­sid­er­a­tions from stake­hold­ers.

Not­ing that many peo­ple had asked the Gov­ern­ment to use the da­ta to de­cide whether it made fi­nan­cial and eco­nom­ic sense to re­open schools, she said, “I am al­so part of the com­mu­ni­ty that hopes that we can quick­ly get to a space where schools can be re­opened safe­ly. Right now, we on­ly saw about 3,000 stu­dents.

“In our own com­mu­ni­ty, in a num­ber of schools, the teach­ers said they can­not come out to teach two stu­dents or three stu­dents and that could have been avoid­ed if the min­istry con­sult­ed with the ed­u­ca­tors, if they had a con­ver­sa­tion with TTUTA.”

She claimed TTUTA is “fight­ing” to have a con­ver­sa­tion with the min­istry.

“So if the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion not talk­ing to TTUTA and school su­per­vi­sors and ed­u­ca­tors, who are they talk­ing to, to make these pol­i­cy de­ci­sions?”

Haynes al­so claimed that in the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee, $40 mil­lion was al­lo­cat­ed for lap­tops but on­ly $2 mil­lion has been spent on the ini­tia­tive.