Min­is­ters of Ed­u­ca­tion, Dr. the Hon. Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and the Hon. Lisa Mor­ris- Ju­lian, along with of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, vis­it­ed schools in South Trinidad on day two of their vis­its to schools.

She met with ad­min­is­tra­tors and stu­dents of nine schools and ex­pressed her sat­is­fac­tion that the open­ing of these schools has been made pos­si­ble. De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion:

On day two (2) of their vis­its to schools, Min­is­ters of Ed­u­ca­tion, Dr. the Hon. Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and the Hon. Lisa Mor­ris- Ju­lian, along with of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, fo­cused on schools in south Trinidad.

The del­e­ga­tion vis­it­ed nine schools, start­ing at Siparia West Sec­ondary School, then on­to Debe Sec­ondary School, Jor­dan Hill Pres­by­ter­ian and San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary School. Next were AS­JA Girls’ and Boys’ Col­leges in San Fer­nan­do, AS­JA Pri­ma­ry School and San Fer­nan­do Methodist School; end­ing with VOS Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School.
 

The del­e­ga­tion from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion met with school ad­min­is­tra­tors, who pro­vid­ed an overview of safe­ty pro­to­cols, at­ten­dance sched­ules and oth­er mat­ters of school op­er­a­tions.  Both Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ters, for­mer teach­ers them­selves, used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­gage the stu­dents and share words of en­cour­age­ment and sup­port. They shared in the ex­cite­ment of the first and sec­ond form stu­dents, at­tend­ing sec­ondary school in per­son for the first time, and en­cour­aged those in Stan­dard 5 to con­tin­ue to be dili­gent as their goal was just ahead.
 

The Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter spoke to her grat­i­tude that the coun­try was able to ar­rive at this mile­stone, re­mind­ing stu­dents that, “Your teach­ers and par­ents have worked hard to get us here to­day, you can show your ap­pre­ci­a­tion by valu­ing the op­por­tu­ni­ty to get an ed­u­ca­tion, and do­ing your best to stay safe. Re­mem­ber to wear your mask, wash your hands and watch your dis­tance.”
 

Based on analy­sis of the da­ta for Tues­day, Feb 8th, 2022, 64% of stu­dents were in at­ten­dance at sec­ondary schools, while at pri­ma­ry schools, 77% of stu­dents at­tend­ed. The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the op­er­a­tions of all schools close­ly. 
 

The vis­its to schools through­out Trinidad con­tin­ue on Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 9, 2022, when both Min­is­ters and a team of of­fi­cials from the Min­istry are ex­pect­ed to vis­it schools in North East Trinidad.