Minister of Education on Covid measures

[K74T]

MOE Anthony Garcia: It seems virtually impossible for schools to reopen before September 2020. Cabinet to make a decision on Thursday.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

MOE Anthony Garcia: It seems virtually impossible for schools to reopen before September 2020. Cabinet to make a decision on Thursday.

Very interesting....

If so then we can assume the same goes for bars and restaurants? or No?

[shake d livin wake d dead]

MOE Anthony Garcia: It seems virtually impossible for schools to reopen before September 2020. Cabinet to make a decision on Thursday.

interested in this, any word on cxc, cape and well s.e.a.???

[Gem_in_i]

Sea will be one mth after school reopens, whenever that may be.

[Redman]

Why cant CXC and CAPE still be done-just spaced out -15 per class room-all the schools closed anyway.

[Dizzy28]

Interesting..........I await to see what the response from private schools will be.

[rebound]

Agreed and same for SEA..

Why cant CXC and CAPE still be done-just spaced out -15 per class room-all the schools closed anyway.

[hydroep]

This gonna to be a real logistical challenge for all involved. If they hold SEA in September — that is if they even open in September — effectively the students will be a term or 1/2 a term behind. Does that mean they will have to make up classes during the following holidays?

Could just imagine TTUTA's response...

[K74T]

KEY POINTS FROM THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION'S VIRTUAL MEDIA CONFERENCE - TUESDAY APRIL 14TH 2020:

- Education Minister Anthony Garcia said it is “almost impossible” for schools to reopen next Monday, April 20th 2020. He added that it seems "virtually impossible" for schools to reopen before September 2020, but there will be ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Health which is managing T&T’s response to COVID-19.

- A proposal has been made for the third school term to run from September 2020 to December 2020, and the next Academic Year to run from January 2021 to July 2021 (two terms instead of three). A decision is expected to be made at the Cabinet Meeting on Thursday.

- Minister Garcia said the delay in reopening schools will have an impact on exams. CXC will need at least one month to make preparations for the regional exams, including the training of invigilators. Time will also have to be allocated for writing the exams and grading papers.

- Cabinet to decide when all exams will be held.

- Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Lovell Francis: Schooling is not centred on a building - it’s about teaching and educating. As such, the core business of education will continue.

- Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Lovell Francis: Two platforms have been created for virtual teaching. Hundreds of teachers are creating content to be hosted online. This content is available for all levels and is being updated on a daily basis. The public is urged to log on to MOE’s website and check out these learning platforms - as much as 100,000 persons tried logging on in the first hour since the announcement was made. Minister Lovell Francis said the MOE’s servers have the capacity to handle as much as 1.4 million users logging on.

- Minister Francis: Getting learning devices to teachers will not be a problem. Getting laptops and learning devices for students, however, will present an issue. Roughly, there are 60,000 students who do not have devices and it will be a tremendous cost to get them. Donations of laptops and learning devices welcomed. We have started the ball rolling. It is being done procedurally.

- The Ministry of Education has held discussions with the Principal of the UWI St. Augustine regarding tertiary learning continuing.

- UTT has already embarked on online teaching.

- The Ministry of Education will meet with TTUTA tomorrow to discuss the way forward for education.

- Minister Francis: Education Ministry was already in discussions with third parties to increase bandwidths at Secondary Schools. Talks with Ministry of Public Administration and Telecommunications Authority to create WiFi Hotspots in areas for students are ongoing. The process has already begun.

- Teachers and substitute teachers will be paid their salaries.

[maj. tom]

No They cannot hold exams under any conditions. Because you're dealing with children who cannot follow strict rules because their brains are not developed like adults. And seeing how well Trinis comply with the rules is not a good example to believe that our children can do the same. In theory it all works, in practical reality an exam setting like that to prevent the spread of a highly contagious virus will never work. Stay home!

We (all humans) should start working on a system to conduct online education and eliminate the concept of fixed exams in a closed room. Most written examinations as we know them serve no purpose but to created anxiety in children for no good outcome. It also does not assess the real learning and understanding of a student of the principles of the subjects taught.

So in a fantasy world we should now be putting into motion a plan for an online teaching framework. Constant feedback and a different type of examinations to assess the skills and learning ability of a student over a period, rather than a one-off day where "you must cut the red wire and never make any mistakes or the bomb will explode in your life" type examination setting. Practical examinations and lab work within a specific time are still valid as they are at a school facility, but should be conducted over the entire year by teachers like an SBA. Really, the result of one single lab exam with all the anxiety and mistakes and random events that can happen is supposed to determine someone's life path? The result of 1 single examination for something you've been learning all year is supposed to determine the rest of your life at 11 years old, on the one day you were feeling ill? That making any sense? Isn't a better system for the teachers to constantly assess the students every fortnight over a year and records the results? Wouldn't those be more reliable statistically?

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

While watching the live stream of the MoE press conference, the most frequent comments or questions were asking what about students and teachers who do not have internet access or devices to do online work.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

While watching the live stream of the MoE press conference, the most frequent comments or questions were asking what about students and teachers who do not have internet access or devices to do online work.

ent the government owns majority stake in TSTT?

Give the students and them a temporary LTE wifi box for those who don't have access to any, most should have some kind of smart device.

Also encourage neighbors the PM should plead on TV to ask neighbors to share their WIFI passwords for children without internet access, since we are all in this together.

I would gladly share my WIFI to someone next door who was unfortunate and had school but too poor to afford internet.
I have 150mbps unused most of the time and so do most people, right now with ISP ripping off everybody who never asked for an upgrade we all have insane amount of bandwidth we are not using but forced to pay for.

lets all help eachother

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Give the students and them a temporary LTE wifi box for those who don't have access to any, most should have some kind of smart device.

The minister said there are approximately 60,000 students without internet access or devices.
That would be a lot of wifi boxes to give away

[dean_spleen09]

Give the students and them a temporary LTE wifi box for those who don't have access to any, most should have some kind of smart device.

The minister said there are approximately 60,000 students without internet access or devices.
That would be a lot of wifi boxes to give away

or give a certain isp some "incentive" to open up their "wifi hotspots" that can be found almost anywhere.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Give the students and them a temporary LTE wifi box for those who don't have access to any, most should have some kind of smart device.

The minister said there are approximately 60,000 students without internet access or devices.
That would be a lot of wifi boxes to give away

or give a certain isp some "incentive" to open up their "wifi hotspots" that can be found almost anywhere.

Perhaps that can work but they may have to set it to only ONE simultaneous connection per student login and probably only work between the hours of 7:30am and 4pm. Also it can only access certain apps and websites that teachers use to give work.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

Hey what about setting up a phone if they have one to access LTE but only certain apps?

Like how you can currently access Newsday website or CDC or Trinidad Express Website FREE of charge right now from Bmobile LTE. Surely a household must have access to a smartphone? And they can access the specific educational website or app for free.

What about some cheap BLU smartphones or something? maybe a joint collaboration between the ISP and Government to distribute 60,000 of these cheap phones. How else will they get access to these devices if society doesn't help?

[dean_spleen09]

Hey what about setting up a phone if they have one to access LTE but only certain apps?

Like how you can currently access Newsday website or CDC or Trinidad Express Website FREE of charge right now from Bmobile LTE. Surely a household must have access to a smartphone? And they can access the specific educational website or app for free.

What about some cheap BLU smartphones or something? maybe a joint collaboration between the ISP and Government to distribute 60,000 of these cheap phones. How else will they get access to these devices if society doesn't help?

some raspberri pi's would do the trick , but i dunno who done get contract to supply laptop

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

^ good point on the raspberri pi's

Laptops would be exceptionally expensive to give away 60,000? and it requires some kind of tech support especially to people who currently "have no access and probably never even used a smartphone" something that way more dummy proof than a laptop

Unless perhaps they go for chromebooks but even then that is more expensive than raspberry pi.

[dean_spleen09]

and with regards to the sharing of the wifi password , i dont know what else they doing on my network. dmca and all that

[adnj]

Give the students and them a temporary LTE wifi box for those who don't have access to any, most should have some kind of smart device.

The minister said there are approximately 60,000 students without internet access or devices.
That would be a lot of wifi boxes to give away

If you were to look at many regions that are rural or where there are ad hoc settlements there is no cable, telephone, or even mobile access within range.

About 75% of the entire population of Trinidad currently has internet access.

Some students do without pipe borne water. And some without electricity.

[88sins]

What's the cheapest most base smartphone available today?
Could set up something, GoRTT could look into getting students some cheap phones with restricted access to installation of third party apps, with a browser that locked so it could only go to MoE website for classes and testing. If they can get something like that, and for sub TTD 500/unit, parents could be asked to pay part of the cost to ease the burden of the purchase off the state, say 200, and tstt could supply the internet to these devices.

Sad that the kids gonna have to take the hit due to this. But we all know this was a possibility.
Hope a solution can be found.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

[Cantmis]

Where ttuta ?

[agent007]

Currently there are several Project Loon balloons in the stratosphere. Perhaps this could be exactly what we are looking for to get internet connectivity for those who don’t have any kind of service.

Current positions can be seen in the image below:

[Redman]

Is there a reason the MOE doesnt use something like G Suite-Classroom???
It seems that they can get all the schools up and running simultaneously, and let google take the responsibility for the platform-My son has been using G suite-and the school was able to get it up for the first class in a few days, from scratch.

why re invent the wheel?

[shake d livin wake d dead]

This entire situation gonna have all kinda bachannal in it....tanty kams would jump out sheself just now

[nemisis]

Contracts my man contracts and bobol

Is there a reason the MOE doesnt use something like G Suite-Classroom???
It seems that they can get all the schools up and running simultaneously, and let google take the responsibility for the platform-My son has been using G suite-and the school was able to get it up for the first class in a few days, from scratch.

why re invent the wheel?

[sMASH]

Give the students and them a temporary LTE wifi box for those who don't have access to any, most should have some kind of smart device.

The minister said there are approximately 60,000 students without internet access or devices.
That would be a lot of wifi boxes to give away

my lil bro went to upgrade his package, and they said it uses the new box, but supplies from china are not coming, so no upgrade

[Dizzy28]

Well I see one private school has responded. Specialist has said all fees have to be paid in full for the online classes they gonna offer.

Devant has posted the letter from Chote to parents on his page

Interesting..........I await to see what the response from private schools will be.

Sent from my MI 9 using TriniTuner mobile app

[rspann]

This entire situation gonna have all kinda bachannal in it....tanty kams would jump out sheself just now

Tell tanty kamla cool sheself . Now is not she turn to teef .