As thou­sands of chil­dren re­turn to class­rooms for the new aca­d­e­m­ic year, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar high­light­ed the gov­ern­ment’s ef­forts to make schools safe and dig­i­tal­ly equipped, co­in­cid­ing with the Unit­ed Na­tions’ In­ter­na­tion­al Lit­er­a­cy Day.

This year’s ob­ser­vance car­ries the theme “Pro­mot­ing Lit­er­a­cy in the Dig­i­tal Era.” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said lit­er­a­cy re­mains cru­cial not on­ly for read­ing and writ­ing, but al­so for con­fi­dence, cre­ativ­i­ty, and op­por­tu­ni­ty in a tech­nol­o­gy-dri­ven world.

The Prime Min­is­ter de­tailed mea­sures tak­en to pre­pare schools, in­clud­ing an on­go­ing re­pair pro­gramme to en­sure class­rooms are ready for learn­ing, and the in­tro­duc­tion of an­ti-bul­ly­ing ini­tia­tives at high-risk schools.

She added that stu­dents will ben­e­fit from up­grad­ed dig­i­tal re­sources, in­clud­ing lap­tops, in­ter­net ac­cess, and books, aimed at pro­vid­ing all chil­dren with equal op­por­tu­ni­ties to thrive.

“Every book you read, every les­son you learn, and every as­sign­ment you com­plete brings you clos­er to your dreams,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

Re­flect­ing on her work in pub­lic ser­vice, the Prime Min­is­ter cit­ed ini­tia­tives such as the pi­o­neer­ing lap­top pro­gramme and the cre­ation of the Min­istry of Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence and Dig­i­tal De­vel­op­ment, which she said un­der­score the gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to prepar­ing stu­dents for the dig­i­tal age.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar ex­tend­ed best wish­es to stu­dents, teach­ers, prin­ci­pals, and par­ents, call­ing on the na­tion to work to­geth­er to raise a gen­er­a­tion that reads, learns, dreams, and achieves.