Tag Archives: Nyan Gadsby-Dolly

With great dismay last Tuesday, I read the lamentation of three government ministers concerning the state of crime in Trinidad & Tobago and the incidence of drug use amongst youths. One of them, Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, felt “helplessness” in the face of violence. The obvious response is to invite her …

“[…] The official Ministry of Education press release announcing the hair code […] works to trivialise the issue and divorce it from its substantive context. “[….] An interview with former principal of Fatima Collage, Father Gregory Augustine two weeks after the press release illuminates the point. On 20 July he …

Situations can inch up stealthily, creeping up so insidiously that we cannot pinpoint the moment when an aberration became the norm. Allow me to return to the realm of cricket to illustrate what I mean about how a particular kind of leadership can damage the psyche of a people, and …

Cruel has to be the word to describe the response of Education Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly to the question of how her ministry was dealing with high temperatures in classrooms. How else could one interpret her offensive comments that teachers and principals are used to it and know how to manage …

“[…] Some of our citizens, unfortunately, seem to hold the view that the natural hair type of students of African descent and their African ancestry/heritage and culture are not valid considerations in the crafting and implementation of school rules. “[…] It is refreshing that like in 1970, the heroes of …

Schools can no longer penalise students with “locs, twists, plaits, afros, cornrows, weaves or braids” thanks to a new “National School Hair Code”, which takes effect nationwide from the new academic year in September 2023. The decision was announced by the Ministry of Education (MOE) after “discussions with the Tobago …

In the long-running comedy series, Seinfeld, the phrase “yada, yada, yada” became popularised. Marcy, a character, used the expression to hide important details, while George used it to avoid speaking about an unpleasant incident. When they discuss their use of the idiom, George discovers that Marcy is a shoplifter. The …

Two of our Ministers recently attended Jamaica’s Champs Track and Field Event. This was a great idea to expand the education of Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, the minister of Education, and Shamfa Cudjoe, the minister of Sports and Community Development. If their interest was really in coming up with a solution to …

“Words are the clothes thoughts wear” — Samuel Beckett, Irish writer. The Budget debate and its fallout sent me scurrying to recall Beckett’s writings. He is the author of “Waiting for Godot”—a play the late James Lee Wah introduced to me in the early 70s.  The state of play on …

“[…] If it was unsafe for schools to stay open, why were the non-essential businesses allowed to stay open with the workers exposed to the same risk? “[…] We must consider whether these weather alerts are reaching the population—especially in rural areas—and are they being understood? […]” The following Letter …

Like a passing cloud, our discussions about the SEA performance of our children have come and dissipated. While we anticipated that there would be some learning loss due to the effects of Covid on our schools and our children’s education, the results are astounding.  In every tier of the results, …

We all have soundtracks that mark our lives, some inexplicably. As a pre-teen, I heard a haunting song that I have never forgotten and which appears to be appropriate in today’s Trinidad and Tobago.  ‘Sad movies always make me cry’ was one of the first songs on Billboard. It told of …