Since physical travel remains risky in these times, Caribbean Yard Campus is offering an inclusive package of virtual education and Caribbean tours in its Rainy Season Programme 2021. Many of us may have ‘done Spanish’ at some level in school, yet cannot speak the language. The course ‘Vamos a Hablar’ …
Read More »Noble: ‘Disadvantaged youths losing opportunity to improve life chances and contribute to national economy’
I am not a professional teacher. But I enjoy teaching and have been leading a group of pre-teens in an under-privileged area (what Bishop Harvey called ‘the belly of the whale’) for the last few years. In the light of the debate about school reopening and the announcement of the …
Read More »Vaneisa: Raising the bar; T&T once valued education, why are we accepting nonsense?
When she was a wee thing, my daughter loved stories. She had favourites and wanted to hear them over and over. There would be phases; the same one from the night before and the night before, before eventually moving on to another. By the time she was about five, she …
Read More »Barney’s bible: ‘The more games you play, the better you get’ fallacy leaves T&T players underdeveloped
Youth development in Trinidad, simply put, consists of tournaments and competitions. The Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL), Youth Pro League (YPL), Republic Bank Youth League, Next Level U-19 Tournament and Commissioner’s Cup are the main players in this arena. I will use the SSFL as the starting point of the …
Read More »B&B (Trailer): Maylee: How sport took me from common entrance flop to university degree
From Common Entrance failure to university graduate, former Trinidad and Tobago Women’s National Senior Team captain Maylee Attin-Johnson explains how sport took her out of the ‘ghetto’. Look out for Attin-Johnson’s full interview on the Burdie and Barney Show from Wednesday 10 March, as we discuss the Canada 2015 World …
Read More »Media Monitor: Where have all the scholars gone? Should the Fourth Estate know the answer?
Two things happened this week to set me off on the path on which I am about to embark. The first, not in chronological order, was the passing of the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (Caiso) head Colin Robinson, which occurred in the US on Thursday morning. Colin …
Read More »Noble: Who really cares? How shallow protests ignore chance for real change
‘Poor children are victims of circumstance/ In life they never really get a chance/Or have opportunities as privileged children do/ The road from the poor suburb to prison leads them/ From broken homes they are condemned to fail/ Their abusive and drug-addicted parents serving time in jail/ Their parents too …
Read More »Rowley: ‘[School] is on!’ Forms 5 and 6 restart on Monday; teachers now essential workers
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley confirmed that Form 5 and Form 6 students will return to school on Monday 8 February. Speaking at a press conference today, he said that the move was a ‘managed response of working with the virus’. Acknowledging that students have been kept away from in-person …
Read More »Dr Gadsby-Dolly reveals new ‘hybrid system’ as forms four to six students return to school on 8 February
Secondary school students from forms four to six will return to physical classrooms on 8 February, in a new ‘hybrid system’ that will involve a combination of online and in-person learning. Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly provided details on the re-opening of schools at a press conference today, as …
Read More »Gopeesingh: ‘Education system hangs in limbo’
‘[…] with the exception of the few thousand devices donated by private benefactors, the MinEd, and by extension the government, has done absolutely nothing tangible or proactive to secure these much-needed [electronic] devices for our students… […] It is the tragic result of pure mismanagement and blatant incompetence on the …
Read More »Daly Bread: Will T&T continue carrying forward its education deficiency?
The year 2020 ended with continuing limitations on the ability of the weary world to rejoice during the just concluding Christmas season, taken somewhat for granted in the lyrics of Oh Holy Night. Those limitations will be carried forward into what would have been the Carnival season 2021. Of course, …
Read More »Noble: Correcting Education’s woes; beyond ‘prestige schools’ and ‘standardised examinations’
“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong,” — H L Mencken Last month, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley reportedly said ‘tough decisions will have to be made to correct the educational imbalances’, as he anticipated ‘an honest and open discussion’ which would lead …
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