The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion says that ten schools re­main on ro­ta­tion­al sched­ules since re­pair work done dur­ing the East­er va­ca­tion was too ex­ten­sive for com­ple­tion in the re­quired time­frame.

A press re­lease from the Min­istry stat­ed  52% EC­CE, 64% Pri­ma­ry and 67% of Sec­ondary School stu­dents at­tend­ed phys­i­cal class­es to­day across Trinidad; a to­tal of 121,609 stu­dents through­out 820 schools.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion: 

To­day, Tues­day April 19th, 2022, marks the first day of the full re­turn to phys­i­cal school for stu­dents in Trinidad, with the stu­dents of To­ba­go set to re­turn on April 20th, 2022. Based on da­ta sub­mit­ted to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to­day, 52% EC­CE, 64% Pri­ma­ry and 67% Sec­ondary School stu­dents at­tend­ed phys­i­cal class­es with­in the pub­lic school sys­tem across Trinidad; a to­tal of 121,609 stu­dents through­out 820 schools.

In ten schools, crit­i­cal works un­der­tak­en dur­ing the East­er va­ca­tion pe­ri­od were too ex­ten­sive for com­ple­tion in the re­quired time­frame, and stu­dents re­main on ro­ta­tion­al sched­ules while these are com­plet­ed dur­ing this week. Teacher turnout at pub­lic pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools were 95% and 88% re­spec­tive­ly, with 97% at­ten­dance at the EECE lev­el.

The School Feed­ing Pro­gramme, man­aged by the Na­tion­al Di­etary Ser­vices Lim­it­ed, op­er­at­ed ful­ly at schools to­day, pro­vid­ing 55,954 break­fast meals and 66,659 lunch meals to stu­dents. School Trans­port be­gan to­day for pre­vi­ous­ly ap­proved routes; ad­di­tion­al ap­provals are ex­pect­ed through­out this week so that this ser­vice will be avail­able along all routes by Mon­day 25th April.

Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, Dr. the Ho­n­ourable Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, in her back-to-school wel­come mes­sage de­liv­ered on be­half of her­self and Min­is­ter Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, said, “Trinidad and To­ba­go is hap­py, like all coun­tries around the world, to bring our chil­dren back out to phys­i­cal school where they have the best chance at ed­u­ca­tion­al suc­cess.”

Both Min­sters are heart­ened by the at­ten­dance of both stu­dents and teach­ers on the first day of phys­i­cal re­turn to school for all stu­dents. “This would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the ded­i­ca­tion of stake­hold­ers, part­ners, ad­min­is­tra­tors, teach­ers, stu­dents, par­ents and the staff of the Min­istry.”

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, through its net­work of dis­trict of­fices, will con­tin­ue to close­ly mon­i­tor and sup­port the op­er­a­tions at schools across all sev­en (7) dis­tricts in Trinidad, to en­sure the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of our chil­dren as they make the tran­si­tion back to the phys­i­cal class­room.

The staff of the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion have planned, and are im­ple­ment­ing ses­sions in all schools, aimed at help­ing stu­dents make this tran­si­tion seam­less­ly, which may prove chal­leng­ing for some. In ad­di­tion, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, through the Com­mu­ni­ty Po­lice, has part­nered with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion in a col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­fort to pro­vide 36 of­fi­cers to as­sist the staff of Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices at se­lect­ed Sec­ondary Schools, which will lend fur­ther sup­port for the main­te­nance of a safe and se­cure learn­ing en­vi­ron­ment for all stu­dents and staff.

The Min­istry wish­es all stu­dents a safe, suc­cess­ful and pro­duc­tive Term.