Top of the agenda was school security, which has been a cause for concern as school administrators observed an increase in student-student and student-adult violence.
New advancements in the education sector, like the transformation of 4 secondary schools into TVET institutions, were also discussed.
President of the Teachers’ Union, Vern Charles, stressed the importance of conducive working and learning environments for all their stakeholders.
“We have brought to the fore many of the teachers' issues, many of the challenges that they face, and we are working with the Ministry of Education to ensure that with the reopening of school, that our teachers are working in safe and healthy environments, that their needs are being addressed,” she explained.
Education Minister, Shawn Edward, present for these discussions, says the government is committed to meeting teachers’ and students’ needs and detailed some of the improvements undertaken at schools in recent times.
“We have installed scores of cameras in various schools. We have embarked on a fencing program to keep perpetrators at bay, persons who have a tendency to tamper with school property. We also looked at some of the new initiatives that were in the budget for which we've received funding, for instance the mathematics programme,” he said.
In the new academic year, schools will see additional staff in the form of principals’ assistants. First introduced by the Kenny Anthony Administration, these assistants were engaged under the National Initiative to Create Employment. The NICE ensured the employment and skills training of thousands of young people in Saint Lucia.
However, the incoming Allen Chastanet Administration discontinued the NICE.
Minister Edward says he is grateful that Prime Minister Pierre has reintroduced the principals’ assistants initiative.
“We had assistants working in the offices of the various school principals functioning as secretaries and that enabled principals to do a lot more at the school level, but with the change of administration in 2016 that programme was discontinued . I'm extremely grateful for the fact that Prime Minister Pierre has put money in the budget to reintroduce that programme.”
