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Speaker:The Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Date: November 22, 1999
Occasion: Address at the Ceremony marking completion of construction of the Carenage Boys' Government Primary School
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The difference between poverty and prosperity is education and training. Apart from life itself education is perhaps the greatest gift that any individual can receive. To deny any citizen the right to education is to commit a crime of great magnitude. Hence the accent of this Government on Education and my commitment to introduce a revolution in Education and training in Trinidad and Tobago. Education will not only prepare you for life; it prepares you for living.
It is a life long process from the womb to the tomb. Here at the Carenage Boy's Government Primary School you will lay the foundation upon which you will build a lasting structure of not only skills but the thought process for life-long learning.
As you enter the new millennium you will encounter an ever changing world of work based on technology and competition. If the new millennium presents us with more challenges it will also provide us with greater opportunities and greater rewards, but you must be able to grasp those opportunities with confidence. You have got to let the past go and look forward. Do not look backwards unless you intend to travel in that direction. Too many of us are psychologically constrained by the shackles of the past - slavery and indentureship. We must believe we are capable of greatness.
Your School, asbestos free I hope, has the capacity to accommodate 660 students during the day and an equal number during the night. Let not a moment go to waste. Night classes must be organised. You are not too old to learn. Look at me, at the age of 17, I left College, 24 when I began studying for my A-Levels, 33 when I became a Lawyer-economist, 47 when I became a Trade Unionist, 60 when I became computer literate, 62 when I began learning how to be Prime Minister, 67 when I took up golf.
In designing and constructing this building, care was taken to make it as comfortable as possible for the students, the teachers and other support staff.
I hope the Government will not be accused of corruption on this one too.
Let me mention some of your facilities :
-You have a library
-Modern computer facilities
-A multi-purpose assembly area; and
-A very modern office for your principal
In addition, this building is designed to cater for the needs of those who may be physically challenged. There are ramps and most of the commonly used facilities are on the floor.
Special attention has been paid to your security. The school is equipped with security lights. There is a fire protection system, plus a state of the Art Public Address System. It is a shame though that we have to spend vast sums of money to protect our schools - the vehicle for progress - from members of our own society. What parent can be so cruel and selfish as to destroy the very instruments that will propel his children to progress and happiness. Such persons do not deserve to live in a civilised society.
Significant changes are underway throughout the education system.
Education is universal and pervasive. Training must be relevant to the needs of modern society. Our present curriculum is outdated.
Textbooks:Standardised Textbooks
Every student is now entitled to have an approved text book for each subject at the Primary School level.
The cost to your parents for the purchase of text books has been significantly reduced. You students will have less books to carry. Your book bags will now be so much lighter. A second hand book market will develop.
Free books for needy students
In circumstances where a student cannot afford to purchase a text book, we have made provisions for the required text book to be provided at no cost to the student - on loan, of course.
About 35% of all our students may be unable to purchase text books. My Government has made provisions for this. As a result almost 53 thousand students are receiving free text books. We have provided thus far about 200,000 books at a cost of about $8M for needy students.
Nothing must prevent our young people from having the best education possible.
Recognising that each school may have somewhat different needs, including your new school, my Government has developed a programme whereby your school will receive a sum of money for school improvement plans. The principal and staff will have the authority to use those funds to undertake a mix of activities that are specific to the needs of your school and your community. So far we have distributed cheques of $90,000 each to 91 Primary Schools and we will give every Primary School in Trinidad and Tobago the same.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
As you can see, My Government is sparing no effort to improve the living environment for teachers and students. Academic excellence, as well as the all round development of the child. Together we will achieve this!. That must be our goal.
My Government has embarked on a dramatic, bold and radical transformation of the Education Sector in Trinidad and Tobago.
Transformation of the Education Sector at the centre of our mission to transform our nation into a total quality nation.
Come next March, The dreaded Common Entrance will be no more. Gone deposited in the dustbin of History.
The Common Entrance Examination has distorted and corrupted our Education System. The entire Primary School experience has been driven by this awful exam, disrupting the joy of learning and in fact hindering the learning process.
The outcome has been that thousands of students entering secondary school with inadequate preparation, many barely able to read or write or do their sums!
Some 30 years ago Dr Eric Williams said that the Common Entrance must be removed as a matter of urgency. The time has come to implement that wish. And so the last Common Entrance in the History of Trinidad and Tobago will be within just about 4 months.
We wish those taking the Exam every success. But we will also celebrate the demise of that exam next March.
Getting rid of the Common Entrance is just one of this bold steps we are taking to transform Education in Trinidad and Tobago.
We must change the entire process of Primary School experience for our young children. The Government has taken steps to ensure that every child of secondary school age will receive a Secondary Education. EVERY CHILD.
And the process begins with the quality of Primary School Education. No longer will its focus be the Common Entrance, instead we have begun a continuous assessment programme� C.A.P.
C.A.P. will enable parents, teachers and students to determine the readiness of each child to move on to the next class.
C.A.P. will determine promotion based on readiness, not merely to make your seat vacant for someone else.
But C.A.P. will also enable parents, teachers and students to determine where our children are performing well and where they need more help.
You will not have to wait until the 11+ to find out that your son or daughter may not be ready for Secondary School or should have been helped long ago in Maths or English or in Social Studies or Science. But even more exciting a child will not have to wait until 11 to go to Secondary School. C.A.P. will determine whom the cap fits. If it fits well, then you move on to the next standard; if it does not fit well, then we help you so that it does eventually fit well.
C.A.P. will ensure that our young children are involved in an educational experience which will make their childhood enjoyable, and enriching, emphasising, reasoning and thinking skills, instead of being driven by the fear of the one exam in their Primary School life, the miserable Common Entrance.
Our first priority therefore is ensuring firstly, quality Primary School Education.
Then we must ensure that all our Primary School children receive a quality Secondary School Education.
Only then shall we achieve our dream of becoming a total Quality Nation.
The first task here is to have enough Secondary Schools with sufficient accommodation for all Primary School Students and we are getting there.
During the next two years we will construct 24 new Secondary Schools.
Over ten new Secondary Schools are to be constructed in the year 2000.
And we will be phasing out the shift system in our Schools. All our Junior and Senior Schools will become full 5 and 7 year Schools. And so we shall finally be rid of the painful shift system.
With these steps, your Government guarantees that every child from our Primary School system will be able to obtain a Secondary School Education. We are on the Road to a genuine system of universal Secondary Education.
Now even with enough places to guarantee a Secondary Education for everyone, we still have the task of placing students in a secondary school, which matches their interests, preferences and academic inclinations. God in his wisdom and mercy made us different so that we may complement one another. Not all of us can be lawyers and not all of us can be politicians, thank God. So we must cater for all preferences. This will involve a continuous process of Secondary School placement.
To this end, we will institute from April 2001, a new Secondary Entrance Assessment Process�(S.E.A.)
This will take the form of a different kind of assessment (not just multiple-choice, guess and blacken the correct box approach of the Common Entrance.)
It will be an assessment to determine the level of competence in just two areas: English (Including written composition) and Mathematics. And the result will indicate readiness for Secondary Education.
The results of S.E.A. will be used to determine which Secondary school is chosen for the child.
And S.E.A. can be taken at any time not just 11+.
The C.A.P. will help determine when a child is ready for the sea. And this could be at age 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 or later.
When SEA indicates that the child is ready for Secondary Education, then the Child moves on.
The idea is to provide our children with a sound Education in the full meaning of those words, not just getting children to pass the one exam in their Primary School Life. Curriculum reform is underway in all Primary Schools.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is clear that we are putting the Education infrastructure in place. At the Primary, the Secondary and at the Tertiary level.
It is now up to you, the young citizens of this country, to accept the challenge and pursue the dream of academic excellence, of the acquisition of skills and attitudes that lead to personal development, and nation building and eventually to your everlasting happiness.
I thank you, and May God Bless You All.