Nine­ty-five Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) of­fi­cers are re­ceiv­ing spe­cialised train­ing for de­ploy­ment to high-risk schools across Trinidad and To­ba­go when the new school term be­gins.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, the of­fi­cers are part of Batch 1/2025 of the SRP, which grad­u­at­ed and was sworn in this week. The cer­e­mo­ny, at­tend­ed by Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der, saw 247 of­fi­cers take their oath of ser­vice af­ter more than 450 hours of aca­d­e­m­ic and prac­ti­cal train­ing. The min­istry said the school-ori­ent­ed of­fi­cers will fo­cus on curb­ing school vi­o­lence, sup­port­ing peer coun­selling, and en­sur­ing safer learn­ing en­vi­ron­ments.

The is­sue of po­lice de­ploy­ment in schools has been the sub­ject of meet­ings be­tween the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers. Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lum Kin told Guardian Me­dia the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry iden­ti­fied 80 schools that may re­quire po­lice pres­ence, 20 pri­ma­ry and 60 sec­ondary.

He said the num­ber was pro­vid­ed to him by Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath.