Gov’t Committed To Ensuring ‘No Child Is Left Behind’

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Fayval Williams, during her back-to-school message to the nation on Sunday (September 5), reiterated the Government’s commitment to ensuring that ‘no child is left behind’.

“For this academic year, we will redouble, triple, quadruple our efforts to reach our students who were unreachable last year. We must remain true to our mission of not leaving any child behind,” she noted.

The 2021/2022 academic year, which begins September 6, will see students across the island using online or computer-aided learning, audiovisual (television and radio) and the printed learning packages or kits.

The Ministry has added audio learning apps that can be downloaded on phones wherever students are located.

In addition, two 24-hour television channels have been launched, one for primary-school students and the other for secondary schools. Live and recorded lessons will be available 24 hours per day, seven days per week.  Families who have a ‘rabbit ear’ television, can access the 24-hour television channels.

Meanwhile, Minister Williams said that the Government will continue with the initiatives started during the last school year, to equip each student with a device to access online learning.

“We start this school year with more devices in the hands of our children and teachers than at any other point in our history, significantly reducing the digital divide in the education sector,” she noted.

“Let us leverage the technology skills that you, our teachers and students, would have gained during the school year recently ended, to move forward confidently in this digital age,” she added.