Ministry of Education Virtual Media Conference - Tuesday April 14th 2020

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 SEA exam will be held. Regional Governments, along with TT Government, to decide on exams under CXC. - 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.