Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath has as­sured staff and stu­dents that San Fer­nan­do West Sec­ondary is among the pri­or­i­ty schools list­ed in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s Ju­ly/Au­gust re­pair pro­gramme.

Speak­ing yes­ter­day at the school’s awards and grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at Na­pari­ma Bowl, San Fer­nan­do, Dr Dowlath re­spond­ed to con­cerns raised by prin­ci­pal Yeana Kel­ly-Sim­mons about ur­gent­ly need­ed re­pairs.

“I’ve re­viewed the list of re­pairs for your school, and your school is a high pri­or­i­ty,” he said.

He not­ed the need not on­ly for re­pairs but al­so for ad­di­tion­al fa­cil­i­ties, in­clud­ing a prop­er play­field.

“I know your school’s in­fra­struc­ture re­quires sig­nif­i­cant up­grades, and that is not a lux­u­ry—it’s es­sen­tial for the fu­ture of the stu­dents and for their all-round de­vel­op­ment,” he said.

“Dur­ing this Ju­ly/Au­gust va­ca­tion, we will be ini­ti­at­ing crit­i­cal in­fra­struc­ture work, not just at your school but at sev­er­al schools across Trinidad and To­ba­go. We want to en­sure that when the new aca­d­e­m­ic year starts, all schools are safe, se­cure, and ready for re­open­ing.”

Com­mend­ing the school’s lead­er­ship, Dowlath, the San Fer­nan­do West MP, praised staff and stu­dents for main­tain­ing dis­ci­pline.

“I am very hap­py that San Fer­nan­do West Sec­ondary has not been in the news for in­ci­dents of in­dis­ci­pline,” he said. “This is a re­flec­tion of the lead­er­ship of the school, the ded­i­ca­tion of the staff, and how our stu­dents are ma­tur­ing.”

Dr Dowlath said he would con­sid­er the prin­ci­pal’s re­quest to in­tro­duce a CAPE pro­gramme at the school. He urged stu­dents to re­flect on their ca­reer paths and take note of the World Eco­nom­ic Fo­rum’s Fu­ture of Jobs Re­port, which high­lights skills such as cre­ative prob­lem-solv­ing, AI lit­er­a­cy, da­ta analy­sis, and cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty.

In her ad­dress, Kel­ly-Sim­mons said the past aca­d­e­m­ic year was marked by chal­lenges and suc­cess­es. While ex­am re­sults fluc­tu­at­ed, the school achieved 100 per cent pass­es in five of 25 sub­jects. Nine­teen sub­jects record­ed pass rates above 70 per cent, and 11 sub­jects saw rates ex­ceed­ing 90 per cent. She not­ed that the school record­ed its high­est pass rates be­tween 2014 and 2024 in sub­jects in­clud­ing Eng­lish A, Physics, Vi­su­al Arts, So­cial Stud­ies, and Ad­di­tion­al Math­e­mat­ics.

How­ev­er, she said in­fra­struc­ture re­mains a press­ing con­cern.

“We pray fer­vent­ly that this Ju­ly/Au­gust we will see the be­gin­ning of much-need­ed in­fra­struc­tur­al work, as the abil­i­ty to en­sure the safe­ty of all who use this com­pound de­pends on it,” she said.

She said they have al­ready done some work un­der a class­room im­prove­ment project.