***The Official Rapid Rail Thread***

[Numb3r4]

Given the general distaste for big projects in this country is it even wise for the PNM to do this in their first term at all? Just like the Highway and Brian Lara Stadium before it...even the Children's hospital these big projects haven't really proven to be worth the investment, even though they were discussed and defended at the time very little came of them in reality.

At this point I would like to see the government try to salvage some of the other failed projects or at least make some kind of definitive judgment on its current state and what the plans are going forward. Put forward new plans or at the very least cost effective ones that help the existing projects be of value to the people.

Think I am being a bit idealistic.......what the hell.

[Redman]

We should have an accounting and reconciliation of those projects and published results of the investigation...before we look towards starting such a large venture.

[BRZ]

MANDATORY School Improvements across the country and Strict SCHOOL ZONING for EAST, NORTH and EAST Trinidad, so if you live central you go to school in Central, no choice unless you going private school.

[sMASH]

Forget children, Zone workers!

[York]

MANDATORY School Improvements across the country and Strict SCHOOL ZONING for EAST, NORTH and EAST Trinidad, so if you live central you go to school in Central, no choice unless you going private school.

WTH, iz a martial state we in? well why don't we have white schools for whites, black for blacks, indian for indians, or christian for christians, muslim for muslims, etc.

19th to early 20th century thinking...

[Daran]

MANDATORY School Improvements across the country and Strict SCHOOL ZONING for EAST, NORTH and EAST Trinidad, so if you live central you go to school in Central, no choice unless you going private school.

WTH, iz a martial state we in? well why don't we have white schools for whites, black for blacks, indian for indians, or christian for christians, muslim for muslims, etc.

19th to early 20th century thinking...

Just implement a free school bus system instead and charge parents extra if they refuse to utilize the service.

[Dizzy28]

School zoning will never work cuz Trinidadians like the ranking ting and we all know prestige schools is a ranking thing (with that said if I have a boy child I want him go Hillview and if a girl SAGHS)

With an end to the allocation of secondary school placings by choice and instead being replaced by zoning we should have a normalizing of the results amongst schools within ten years. There will still be a trend of higher performing schools that are located close to more populated areas as opposed to say the Blanchisseuse High Schools or Mayaro High Schools that serve less densely populated areas of the country.

[Redman]

Well.we.need to make.all.secondary.school s deliver prestige school results.

It's a question of management.

So that I don't need to send my children into Sando or POS in order to get properly educated...

[Dizzy28]

Well.we.need to make.all.secondary.school s deliver prestige school results.

It's a question of management.

So that I don't need to send my children into Sando or POS in order to get properly educated...

But the best schools aren't located in PoS

[bluesclues]

MANDATORY School Improvements across the country and Strict SCHOOL ZONING for EAST, NORTH and EAST Trinidad, so if you live central you go to school in Central, no choice unless you going private school.

WTH, iz a martial state we in? well why don't we have white schools for whites, black for blacks, indian for indians, or christian for christians, muslim for muslims, etc.

19th to early 20th century thinking...

Just implement a free school bus system instead and charge parents extra if they refuse to utilize the service.

dfuq????

have a seat young budding tyrant.

[Slartibartfast]

School zoning will never work cuz Trinidadians like the ranking ting and we all know prestige schools is a ranking thing (with that said if I have a boy child I want him go Hillview and if a girl SAGHS)

With an end to the allocation of secondary school placings by choice and instead being replaced by zoning we should have a normalizing of the results amongst schools within ten years. There will still be a trend of higher performing schools that are located close to more populated areas as opposed to say the Blanchisseuse High Schools or Mayaro High Schools that serve less densely populated areas of the country.

I'm more concerned about the junior secs. What do they expect to happen by putting all of the delinquents in one place? Teachers are doomed from the start and then blamed for their failure. On the other end of the spectrum you have some crappy teachers in prestige schools getting a good rep because the students do a lot of the work on their own.

[Redman]

Privatise secondary education

[EmilioA]

MANDATORY School Improvements across the country and Strict SCHOOL ZONING for EAST, NORTH and EAST Trinidad, so if you live central you go to school in Central, no choice unless you going private school.

As far as I know we do have 'sort off' zoning in Trinidad, that applies only to Govt Schools but not to the Religious Schools.

I'm more concerned about the junior secs. What do they expect to happen by putting all of the delinquents in one place? Teachers are doomed from the start and then blamed for their failure. On the other end of the spectrum you have some crappy teachers in prestige schools getting a good rep because the students do a lot of the work on their own.

I thought they got rid of Junior Secs about 6 years ago. The whole deshifting process. All schools are 5 year now. That's why Eldo Junior is now Eldo West.

[Daran]

EmilioA

Zoning only applies when you didn't get one of the choice schools (I believe parents put down 3 or 4 schools).

And zoning in theory is good. But that would require the public perception of all non-prestige schools to be equal. Additionally, it can also lead to even more race divided schools.

Privatization of secondary school education could be an interesting idea..

[teems1]

Well.we.need to make.all.secondary.school s deliver prestige school results.

It's a question of management.

So that I don't need to send my children into Sando or POS in order to get properly educated...

Incorrect.

What we need is for all secondary schools to deliver the same standard of teaching that the prestige school students get.

The results would improve, but it's impossible to reach a point where all schools get the results of Naps girls/boys, Convent, Saghs, Pres, Fatima etc.

[Habit7]

I also wish that every boy would get his transforming Chevy Camarro and every girl her pink pony with bushy tails.

[Slartibartfast]

I'm more concerned about the junior secs. What do they expect to happen by putting all of the delinquents in one place? Teachers are doomed from the start and then blamed for their failure. On the other end of the spectrum you have some crappy teachers in prestige schools getting a good rep because the students do a lot of the work on their own.

I thought they got rid of Junior Secs about 6 years ago. The whole deshifting process. All schools are 5 year now. That's why Eldo Junior is now Eldo West.

What they call it now is insignificant.

[Redman]

Well.we.need to make.all.secondary.school s deliver prestige school results.

It's a question of management.

So that I don't need to send my children into Sando or POS in order to get properly educated...

Incorrect.

What we need is for all secondary schools to deliver the same standard of teaching that the prestige school students get.

The results would improve, but it's impossible to reach a point where all schools get the results of Naps girls/boys, Convent, Saghs, Pres, Fatima etc.

Yep Point taken

[zoom rader]

I also wish that every boy would get his transforming Chevy Camarro and every girl her pink pony with bushy tails.

As long as it have a PNM stamp on it.

[sMASH]

Academics is not the only skill necessary for success.
The prestige schools handle academically inclined children well, create environments where other skills can be developed.

Give children an all round exposure, but help find their talent and nuture it.

Zone their abilities and capabilities.




....and zone workers. Why d frazzle u in grande and wuking in town.... Increasing the carbon footprint.

[Habit7]

....and zone workers. Why d frazzle u in grande and wuking in town.... Increasing the carbon footprint.

Great idea!

So all ministers of govt and prime ministers will be from the NW peninsula because a pm commuting from south to POS esp. by helicopter is too big of a carbon footprint. And hospitals will be limited to medical staff within their zone, so the Couva Children's Hospital will have to find 2000 extra medical staff in their zone. Also police officers, fire, army and other protective services must work in their zone. So a coast guard from Tabaquite must not drive for more than 30 mins from his home to work. Or a prison officer or air guard from San Fernando must work no further than Gasparillo.

With innovative ideas like this who needs a mass transit system?

[ingalook]

Well.we.need to make.all.secondary.school s deliver prestige school results.

It's a question of management.

So that I don't need to send my children into Sando or POS in order to get properly educated...

Incorrect.

What we need is for all secondary schools to deliver the same standard of teaching that the prestige school students get.

The results would improve, but it's impossible to reach a point where all schools get the results of Naps girls/boys, Convent, Saghs, Pres, Fatima etc.

Having gone to a prestige school as a student and now be teaching at a government school I can tell you that the teachers in a government school work AT LEAST as hard as those in the prestige schools, if not far harder.

Any prestige school teacher has gone home by a student to find out why they not coming to school? Or gone to court to stand as a character witness?? All without the kudos and accolades that come from teaching in a "prestige" school

To put it in perspective, we all have to get our students to run the same 100m race, your students starting on the 90m mark, mine start on 40m. The race is run, you are celebrated when your students cross the finish line - I am chastised because my students only made it to the 60m mark...

[EmilioA]

I'm more concerned about the junior secs. What do they expect to happen by putting all of the delinquents in one place? Teachers are doomed from the start and then blamed for their failure. On the other end of the spectrum you have some crappy teachers in prestige schools getting a good rep because the students do a lot of the work on their own.

I thought they got rid of Junior Secs about 6 years ago. The whole deshifting process. All schools are 5 year now. That's why Eldo Junior is now Eldo West.

What they call it now is insignificant.

It kind of matters if Junior Secs no longer exist

[hustla_ambition101]

To touch on the school zoning and prestige/gov't school battle, some of the teachers who students from "prestige schools" attend their lessons and end up with good grades are gov't school teachers.....

[sMASH]

....and zone workers. Why d frazzle u in grande and wuking in town.... Increasing the carbon footprint.

Great idea!

So all ministers of govt and prime ministers will be from the NW peninsula because a pm commuting from south to POS esp. by helicopter is too big of a carbon footprint. And hospitals will be limited to medical staff within their zone, so the Couva Children's Hospital will have to find 2000 extra medical staff in their zone. Also police officers, fire, army and other protective services must work in their zone. So a coast guard from Tabaquite must not drive for more than 30 mins from his home to work. Or a prison officer or air guard from San Fernando must work no further than Gasparillo.

With innovative ideas like this who needs a mass transit system?

Now u cetching the idea. Why waste fuel and time in long repetative daily commutes? Keep those distances to once I in a while head office meetings.

Why must I wait on a police vehicle or ambulance from point fortain? Why can't they be better zoned ?

[Numb3r4]

I know someone who worked in the public school system for all of 30 years and effectively it came down to the fact that the curriculum was horribly mismatched, persons who just were not able to handle a particular work load were subjected to it anyway

There was little to no accounting for ability and the suitabliity of the curriculum to the ability.

Not to mention the fact that since EVERYBODY MUST PASS there were probably folks who shouldn't even be in the secondary school system anyway and they should be assigned to proper remedial centres for the proper guidance and help.

Then you have to deal with the parents (and by extension the student) who tend to come from lower income or dis-advantaged households and genuinely can't cope (for various reasons, but you get the idea) and they simple can't or won't come to terms with the general ability of their children of the fact that their kids need extra help.

Again back to the issue of accountability no one of the policy makers were willing to audit the system because it would provide data that was contradictory to the image of a functioning system, data that any teacher could supply, data that would prove that the curiculum was failing the students.

In short the person said that there were kids, who barely understood the language they were speaking, English, were subjected to learning Spanish, obviously that will not go well. Eventually the kids would become dis-interested and then well they drift away, mentally that is. The general response by those in authority was that the teacher must be an "Edutainer" to encourage the child's interest.

The reality is that their exists a segment of the youth population that just can't be motivated to go and stay in school because their life problems are so consuming.

Coming back to the thread topic of the rapid rail, the money for such large infrastructural projects should actually go into proper regularly audited social programs to help the disadvantaged or at the very least it should produce data that can be acted upon, data that can prove whether or not the persons who are served by such programs are actually improving or even want to improve.

[hustla_ambition101]

Numb3r4, many of the "disadvantaged" in this country and elsewhere in the world use welfare as a means of income to support a lifestyle of laziness. There are lots of disabled people in T&T who work regular jobs and don't rely on a welfare check or smart card to survive. Most who claim poverty are plain LAZY. If you able to have sex, you more than able to learn a skill and look for a job.

We are in need of a proper transit system and this is evidenced by the thousands climbing on each others backs at rush hour to get transport. Decentralization and zoning will help to an extent but it will be met with resistance from some spheres, especially those who jobs allow them to claim travelling allowances

[drchaos]

The main problem in sweet T&T is not government ... Its the people!
If you take a swig from a bottle with mainly dregs ... you will end up with a mouthful of dregs.

[sMASH]

Its a pity people don't see the value of the additional time they would save if spend less time commuting to and from work, as quality time they could spend with their families.

[Twin Isle Cars n' Parts]

Its a pity people don't see the value of the additional time they would save if spend less time commuting to and from work, as quality time they could spend with their families.

Very much so...