Ministry has accomplished most of its goals

Biche High School

Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh has boasted of the achievements of the People’s Partnership Government over the past four-plus years in the education sector.

In a release last week, Gopeesingh stated his Ministry remains focused, having delivered more than 90 per cent of the promises made by the Partnership Government in 2010, and will strive to complete the other ten per cent and to carry the education sector to continued outstanding achievement.

“We wish all of our over 250,000 students, 16,000-plus teachers, 1,000-plus administrators, 4,000 education sector employees and our many education stakeholders, including TTUTA, NPTA and the denominational Boards of Education, continued success, good health and happiness for 2015 and beyond, in our lifelong journey in education,” he stated.

Gopeesingh said Government provided more than 95,000 laptops to students, more than 5,000 to teachers, principals and school supervisors, and has also trained thousands of teachers in ICT and infusion of ICT into the curriculum.

The Minister said all secondary schools have been equipped with functioning computer labs, as well as more than 300 primary schools.

“We now also have 21st century smart classrooms, with audio-visual labs, in a number of our schools.”
He added the Ministry was continuing to coordinate with major stakeholders for “special needs” students (Inclusive Education Model), so that the majority of these special needs pupils are brought under that programme, while work continues with the 14 private and 11 public special needs schools.

In addition, Gopeesingh stated that through the Ministry’s Student Support Services Division, in collaboration with hundreds of private and public sector employers, more than 70,000 secondary school pupils have been through two-day career guidance workshops at a national level.

Furthermore, he said, more than 100 parenting workshops have been held throughout Trinidad and Tobago, attracting thousands of parents who are now part of the Parent Academy in Education.

“Literacy and numeracy have improved significantly among our students, with 2014 seeing the best academic achievements ever in our nation’s history, in the SEA, CSEC and CAPE, with marked improved in all three examinations.”

Gopeesingh stated Government constructed more than 83 new schools, with another 90 under construction, and completed more than 4,500 infrastructural, repair and maintenance projects, in more than 850 schools.

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