The Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Appeals Committee reached a unanimous decision regarding St Benedict’s College’s registration of team captain and star forward Derrel “Zoom Zoom” Garcia. And it has found in favour of the Disciplinary Committee. “The Appeals Committee unanimously agrees that St Benedict’s College failed to present sufficient …
Read More »Vaneisa: The life of the cave—why choose venom over illumination?
Seeing a big picture requires a lens shaped by multiple streams of information. If you live within the confines of a cave, everything you know is defined by its walls. Not so? It follows that how you respond to events is determined by the knowledge that you have to work …
Read More »Dear editor: Crime is hot topic, but inequal education system is T&T’s deepest issue
“[…] Our deepest issue is the inequality of our education system. Despite calls for reform, we’re stuck with a system that often doesn’t prepare young people for a changing world. “The prestige schools have better facilities, better managed teachers, and more opportunities compared to schools in rural or poor areas. …
Read More »Race and kaiso in the classroom: Kitchener’s ditty on little Black boys
Only a complete ignoramus! Or the kind of blindness that will not see! Tell me, how could even one person in Trinidad and Tobago actually entertain the thought that Aldwyn “Kitchener” Roberts might have been capable of such an abomination? Oh, what a country! In the days when Guy Harewood …
Read More »Daly Bread: If ministers feel “helpless” about crime, then what now?
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 …
Read More »Remembering Teacher Percy and our journey into education
Bring back the old-time days… Do you remember the primary school days when we sat in the dusty school yard under the tambrand, tree, the downs tree, the immortelle tree, the padoo tree, or whatever tree that was in the yard while teacher Percy preached hellfire and brimstone and brought …
Read More »Vaneisa: Paying to learn—the lingering issue with VAT on books
In the late 1990s, in response to one of my weekly columns, retired Professor Emeritus Desmond Imbert called me. It was the beginning of a rather odd friendship that went on for years—when he died in 2010, we had still never met in person. Communication was always at his instigation, …
Read More »Noble: Increase resources for children born into chaos, or face their mounting rage
“In a great country like ours, we should aspire for every child to grow up to achieve his or her full potential. Anything less is a waste of talent and a blemish on human dignity and flourishing.” Mike Petrilli (Fordham Institute), 2023. In April 2009, our country hosted President Barack …
Read More »Daly Bread: A social force for good—the gov’t can still do more for pan
The Junior Panorama took place last Sunday. It is the Carnival event I most enjoy. This year, my annual attendance was seasoned by an insightful statement from a member of the current government, whose communication is regularly that of deny, deflect and denigrate. The phrase that headlines this column is …
Read More »Noble: How educational inequity is incompatible with a just society
“[…] This feeling of always being uneducated influenced me when I became prime minister. There were always about 6,000 children thrown on the social dump heap because they failed their Common Entrance exam. “I realised the Common Entrance was not to determine who went to school but who wouldn’t… If …
Read More »“I’d have day planned and then something pops up…” Day in the life of a school principal
“[…] One of the initiatives that I started was every child at the school had to belong to a club, so that school is not just about the academics, but school is about developing the child holistically. “At the school right now, we have an arts and crafts club, we …
Read More »Daly Bread: Education triple whammy
Two weeks ago, I described conditions in the education system as destructive. I identified what I called the double whammy as follows: “We persist in giving priority to grammar school type education for children who may be otherwise talented or motivated, but who have little aptitude for many of the …
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