Recently, a series of videos have been making the rounds showing young people in school uniforms, many of them young ladies, engaged in fights. One fight is hardly out of our minds before another imprints itself on it, complementing—if that is the appropriate word—the repugnant images of girls kicking, punching, …
Read More »STREET VIBE: Despite Garcia’s woodsman boast; T&T’s school dropouts rate is real scandal
To say it’s sad to learn about the significant amount of students who over the years have “dropped out of school” is an understatement. To further learn that the primary reason behind the dropout rate is financial hardship—known in most circles simply as poverty—is depressing. When it becomes downright asinine …
Read More »MASTER’S VOICE: Save us from this arseness! Only dinosaurs would suggest shortened lunch breaks
Sherma Wilson, you don’t know me; we’ve never met. I think we traded messages briefly on Facebook a couple years ago, but I giving yuh wuk to do. Most of your listeners are from the lower-income, depressed communities in the country; try and get some of them into Parliament nah—and …
Read More »Super Fast Garcia strikes again; Live Wire schools Education Minister
No sex education for over-sexed students? Playing dress up with teachers? Half-hour lunch breaks for primary school children? Education Minister Anthony Garcia is on a roll. The bad news is, as always, he is heading downhill. Super Fast Garcia was at it again yesterday when, while pointing to a shift …
Read More »Dear Editor: What you should know about Asperger’s; and why it matters
“Whereas autism is often reflected in poor academics and developmental issues, children diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome usually possess an average or even above average IQ, which means they are not easily diagnosed since they are not inhibited from succeeding academically. “However they may be mislabeled as ‘difficult’, ‘antisocial’, ‘awkward’ and even …
Read More »Pen in school, Minister Garcia? Best honours brother who fathered the writer in him
I couldn’t believe my ears. Had the radio just said that the Minister of Education was planning to start instruction in panmanship in the nation’s schools? Had someone finally seen the light after all these years, just as the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies was launching a week-long …
Read More »Discussion: Should T&T be reaping the benefits of the end of corporal punishment by now?
Corporal punishment was removed from schools over 15 years ago and there seemed to be a strong moral argument to abolish “violence” against children. But should that not mean young people—at least below the ages of 23—ought to be significantly less violent? Whether or not you believe that abolishing corporal punishment was the just …
Read More »Letter to the Editor: SEPOS evening tutors are owed two years salary from MoE!
“I did not want to have to take a loan from the bank but, the way things are going now, I have no choice but to do so and I have already approached a bank. “I’m going into my final semester next year, so I need all my money which …
Read More »Letter to Editor: Monthly contracts are turning MoE workers into modern-day slaves
“To date there are approximately 250 individuals whose three year contracts have come to an end and are now on monthly contracts. In fact this has been the situation for the last year and a half and relates to technical officers in various departments such as IT, Text books, Research, …
Read More »Is T&T’s failure to provide proper school facilities for all a human rights violation?
“The more recent understanding of rights is that they also involve what we call economic, social and cultural rights; namely, the rights to education, to health, to work, the environment and to culture. “Significantly, we have moved away from the self-imposed limitation that economic, social and cultural rights are merely …
Read More »Tailor-made education: Best sews up loose ends on Ministry’s dress code proposal
“Education kills,” some wit with spare time and a can of spray paint inscribed on the walls of the London Underground years ago, “… by degrees.” How right! The move from ABC to BA, MSc or PhD is very often not a journey about acquiring the life skills comfortable survival …
Read More »A dress for teachers? Best take on Education Ministry’s proposed sartorial intervention
As a minister of education, Tim Gopeesingh can’t touch Anthony Garcia with a ten-foot pole. As a conscientious educator with over three decades of dedicated service in the formal education system, I confidently so affirm. Photo: Former Minister of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh And I go further. If you gave …
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