RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath wants San Fer­nan­do TML Pri­ma­ry School’s ze­ro-in­dis­ci­pline record to be used as an ex­am­ple and has pledged to cre­ate safer, more dis­ci­plined schools across the coun­try dur­ing his tenure.

At the school’s grad­u­a­tion at Achie­vors Ban­quet Hall in Dun­can Vil­lage yes­ter­day, Dr Dowlath urged school su­per­vi­sors and ad­min­is­tra­tors na­tion­wide to em­u­late its ap­proach.

“Your prin­ci­pal spoke in her re­port about there be­ing no in­dis­ci­pline. At a na­tion­al lev­el, we are fac­ing chal­lenges with stu­dent be­hav­iour. The lessons learned from TML Pri­ma­ry should be shared, not just in Vic­to­ria Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict, but in all of our schools in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said.

The min­is­ter praised the val­ues-based ed­u­ca­tion at TML, de­scrib­ing the stu­dents as cour­te­ous and re­spect­ful, and com­mend­ing the school’s phi­los­o­phy of “good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.”

“All of the stu­dents told me thank you when they came up here to col­lect their cer­tifi­cates,” he said. “That is a hall­mark that we’ve lost in many places—look­ing out and car­ing for each oth­er.”

He al­so recog­nised the role of par­ents: “You were the first teach­ers. This na­tion has a deep grat­i­tude to our par­ents.”

Dr Dowlath al­so as­sured fam­i­lies of the gov­ern­ment’s con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to ac­cess, eq­ui­ty, and rel­e­vance in ed­u­ca­tion.

He spoke of the up­com­ing na­tion­wide lap­top dis­tri­b­u­tion and not­ed ef­forts to strength­en stu­dent sup­port sys­tems, in­clud­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal ser­vices and men­tor­ship. He al­so re­mind­ed the grad­u­ates to stay cu­ri­ous, re­silient and proud of their her­itage.

“Be­lieve in your­self and do good. Don’t let any­one put you down. Be proud of your roots, your faith, and your val­ues. These are your strengths,” he urged.

School prin­ci­pal Wahi­da Mo­hammed-Nar­ine, said dis­ci­pline was deeply root­ed in the school’s dai­ly life.

“There is no in­dis­ci­pline at TML,” she re­vealed. “Our stu­dents are guid­ed by re­spect, struc­ture, and the val­ues of Is­lam—cre­at­ing a calm and em­pow­er­ing en­vi­ron­ment. Dis­ci­pline is wo­ven in­to the fab­ric of our cul­ture.”

She out­lined the school’s con­sis­tent na­tion­al aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance, co-cur­ric­u­lar achieve­ments, and its recog­nised mod­el for digi­ti­sa­tion, which in­cludes track­ing at­ten­dance and holis­tic stu­dent de­vel­op­ment.

Vale­dic­to­ri­ans Raeid Mu­radali and Suriya Nanan re­flect­ed on their sev­en-year jour­ney at the school.

“This is our time to step in­to the world, to shape it, to chal­lenge it, and to change it,” said Suriya.

Raeid echoed the sen­ti­ment, quot­ing the Qur’an’s Surah Al-Asr to re­mind peers of the val­ue of time, be­lief, and pa­tience.

“We are part of a lega­cy built on ser­vice, ex­cel­lence, and sac­ri­fice,” Nanan said.

“Our school cli­mate helped us be­come the best ver­sion of our­selves.”

The two grad­u­ates al­so thanked their par­ents, teach­ers and sup­port staff.

“You are the gi­ants whose shoul­ders we have stood up­on,” said Mu­radali.

Awards and medals were pre­sent­ed to the stu­dents who gave spe­cial thanks to their Stan­dard Five teach­ers ,Hameed Shah and Ra­bia Mo­hammed.

Al­so at­tend­ing the grad­u­a­tion were Dr Roy­don Ram­per­sad, TML School Man­ag­er – Ju­madeen Mo­hammed, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Trinidad Mus­lim League, Shawn Ami­rali and PTA Pres­i­dent Ra­jin­dra Lutch­mans­ingh.