On June 9^th, during the weekly post Executive Council media briefing, Secretary of the Division of Education, Innovation and Energy (DEIE), Marslyn Melville-Jack, updated the public and members of the media on the status of education in Tobago.

“Educators have risen to the challenge and have begun the demanding process of redefining education,” said Melville-Jack, as she praised teachers who, despite the dilemmas resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, carried out their teaching duties.

Students went from being inside classrooms to learning their subjects through devices.

“This new era in education was a shift from learning about technology to learning with technology,” she said.

The Education Secretary indicated that, because of the new method of learning, students should either have a device or have access to one to participate in their online learning.  As such, the Division has distributed 900 laptops, 150 tablets and 5 Chromebooks to students at the secondary school level, 1,460 tablets to primary schools and 160 tablets to ECCE centres. The Division also called on others to assist the process and 430 devices were donated by the private sector.

Melville-Jack confirmed that upgrades have been carried out at schools to meet the COVID-19 requirements, including Internet accessibility. She also encouraged examiners and moderators for the upcoming examinations to get vaccinated.  Approximately 1,065 students are set to sit the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination, 913 are registered for CSEC and 377 students have signed up for the CAPE exams.