Education Ministry: Students missing classes to fish and farm

At the opening of the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago’s (COSTAATT) new Chaguanas campus on Wednesday, Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr Lovell Francis, said based on Ministry data, schools in coastal regions perform below acceptable standards. The situation, he said, required special attention from the Ministry of Education in order to ensure equitable education.

Speaking with Newsday yesterday, Lindsay Doodhai, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) explained that one of the contributing factors for this underperformance of coastal and rural schools was students missing days of school to help their parents fish and farm.

“What you find is that many families in coastal and rural areas are farmers and fisherfolk,” said Doodhai. “We noticed that on Wednesday and Thursday, some students aren’t in school because their parents are going to market on those days and they want their help. Sometimes they stay away for extended periods of time and only start coming consistently when SE A is coming up. They end up not benefitting from the full extent of their education.”

Full-time school attendance or an alternative source of education as approved by the Education Minister is compulsary for children ages five through 16 according to the Education Act. Section 77 of the Education Act also places the immediate responsibility for school attendance on parents.President of the National Parent Teacher Association, Zena Ramatally, said to Newsday that high levels of poverty and single parent families in coastal and rural communities sometimes result in students having to contribute to the household by working alongside their parents. “The Ministry needs to implement outreach programmes for these communities to impress upon parents the value of a good education for their children,” said Ramatally. “Many well-educated persons in society will tell you that they too came from these communities and they did so because their parents showed them the value of education.”