Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, Accountability the all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5 Good.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Morning to you President Walter Stewart. How are you this morning? Fine, sir, bad at all.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: And good morning to you Mr. Davey Murray and your listenership. NPTA speaks.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: This is the segment where we get a chance to chat with Walter Stewart, president of the National Parent Teachers association on related items as it relates to tutor some instances, the schooling and other instances. Just before we get into that segment, I'm seeing a call coming through. This is a burning call. Good morning.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Hi, good morning sir. Yes, quickly please feel free you could.
[00:00:44] Speaker C: Talk on any free topic.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Well, right now we're delving into the NPTA speak, but I thank you. All right, so it's all about the National Parent Teachers association now. So Walter, a term has passed. Congratulations again into your ascension and re election being re elected to the helm of the npta.
Thank you so much. When it's nice, we do it twice, correct?
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Very well said.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: You know, so we bring you back on board and you're there for another two years and of course you've already started making changes by securing a nice Home on Freedom 106.5 the mainstream media for the NPTA.
Now Walter, let's, let's revisit September 8th. I think it was school reopened this term.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: On the 8th of September 2025.
You at the, at the head of the NPTA would have seen some transitions. You were very proud of the fact that this government following the 2025 April 20 elections was able to open 95% of schools with about two schools you call one in Sidra side needing repairs. And then there was the Toco school that had some electrical issues. Other schools went out, students went out to school.
What are some of the right, what are some of the developments you would have noticed that took place in this school term? You know, let's recap some of the things that happened before we look at what we would like to see in the next talk about some of these things.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: And again thanks and good morning. But one of the major issues in this particular school term was the installation and introduction of SOPU School Oriented Police Unit. It's not something that we had anticipated but again TV and listeners, when you look at what was taking place in our schools, when you look at those videos, the fight, the indiscipline, the bullying, etc. And of course the number of suspensions from our schools in particular harsh measures required harsh circumstances and situations so that we had to take the hardline act in order to be able to arrest what was escalating into a terrible, terrible situation among our students. So the installation of the SOPO of the School of Entered police Unit was one of the major issues as well that took place in this term. Moving aside from that, we, we had the government's promise of a laptop for every first form student. As we are aware, there are about 18,000 students who wrote the SCA in 2025 and the government started the rollout very early in this month of December starting at the Penile Secondary School. And to date several of our students in Trinidad, and I might also include Tobago, several of our students in the first form are now in possession of an AI installed laptop that they can use for the education throughout the academic year. And of course the years coming up to form five, form six.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Wonderful.
Now with some of the transitional changes, what are some of the things you would have seen happened in previous, in the previous terms, especially preceding Java to what you're seeing now that would have developed some of the, the outside of the, the, the police presence at the schools, a little curtailing on the school violence. What other initiatives you would have seen rolled out in this physics in this school term, which is the longest one for the school year, academic year that you think was great, you know, you would like to employ the government to continue on it. What are some of the other things?
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Well, the emphasis on digitization.
The students who would have entered the primary school for the first time, they didn't have to line up and queue in front of the school to register their five year olds. The entire system, the entire program was digitized. So parents could have stayed in the luxury of their offices, their homes, wherever and register the student and get almost real time responses with regards to the acceptance and registration of their students.
And this of course, as we are all aware, we are now in the IT agent so that everything will have to now or most things, sorry, would have to now go digitized in order to avoid the backlog, the inconvenience, appearance, the inconsistencies, etc, so that again we want to load both the previous and the current government for the digitization of the registration of our primary school students.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Excellent. Hello, good morning, good morning.
[00:05:26] Speaker C: Hello, good morning. Yes, hi, good morning to everyone and welcome to your honored guest.
I had asked a question in a previous show regarding the textbooks that are used in primary schools. We have almost every primary school has a different textbook in the sense that it allows, I think the present system allows principle to determine what textbooks to be used.
The effect of this is that it makes it difficult for parents to use textbooks from one school or the other. And that is, it is terrible. And I think, with due respect, I hope I'm not misquoting the gentleman there, but I think he said it's because of the locality and each textbook will be relevant to the particular locality ending. I want to disagree in the sense that if, even if you want to go that road, at least have textbooks related to North Central and South and tobacco, but you cannot have in one area, for instance, like in SA, you have about 10 school, primary schools or whatever, and each of them is using a different textbook. That is craziness and makes it very difficult for parents to use new textbooks. I will listen off here to the comment.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Thanks.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: And let me say that I can't recall ever making that comment. But what I can say though is that we are all using the same curriculum. At the end of the day, all the students who would have would write the SCA examinations are governed and guided by the same curriculum. So the caller is correct because of the locality. Sometimes, let's say a fishing village like Charlotteville in Tobago, for example. DB the textbooks do of course include. It might relate to the curriculum, might be slightly different to the textbook in Charlotteville, the textbook in West Moorings, for example, because you want to make sure that the textbook is relevant to the culture and the atmosphere, the environment of where you live. But what I can say is that the government is presently reviewing the whole textbook scenario in both the primary and the secondary schools so that there is some kind of standardization in keeping more or less with what the caller is appealing for. So that there is some standardization with regards to the publishing and the publishers in our primary and secondary schools. But for the secondary schools in particular, we hope to go strictly E text books shortly so that it would eliminate as well some of the heavy books that we are taking in our schools, straining the backs of our students and making it so inconvenient for us as well. So that answer this question directly. Standardization is coming with regards to the textbook situations in primary and secondary schools.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: As it relates to encouragement, to getting parent intervention and involvement. I spoke with. I can't remember her name, it's eluding me. Last week and she had some great insight.
Glasgow. Right. And she had some great secretary. Yes, some great insight as to what the NPTA is doing to encourage parents. If you could reiterate some of those points that she would have highlighted last. Last week. And Good morning to Ms. Glasgow, wherever she is this morning.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Yeah, good morning, Mrs. Glasgow. Listen we are taking different approach, I'm using with different, different approach to encouraging our parents to be more involved in their child's educational journey because it's the only way, Devi, that you are going to guarantee and ensure success for your child. It is well known throughout nationally, regionally and internationally that the student whose parent is involved in the educational journey, that student is bound to have to mandatory will do extremely well in their academic journey. So we are now trying to encourage parenting programs, for example, in our areas, in our schools, in our communities, even so that we are now bringing the PTA to the community, to the society, and of course causing parents to understand the need and the value of ensuring that your PTAs are flourishing. We are also looking at our priority schools. David There are several priority schools schools Bishop would not have gained academic prowess or academic success and would have scored more or less under 50%. Those schools have been deemed the priority schools and we are working out a program, a system, a procedure whereby we can now ensure that all these priority schools, let us see how the parent Teacher association can link with the teachers, with the school administration in order to lift the standard, lift the bar, lift the success of our students to ensure greater student outcomes in all our schools, priority schools and non priority schools in Trinidad and Tobago.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: You know, what are some of your proudest moments as you look back at the last academic year that you would have, I mean outside of the police intervention and I understand that they're now making it permanent fixtures with police officers at certain schools, they have been given instruments to be permanently fixed at these schools. Outside of that, the laptop distribution. Outside of these, what are some of the most outstanding moments you think you could reflect on and you would really like to Harper, on going forward into the new term come January?
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Listen, there is something that is called the merit list. It's the Caribbean merit list where the layer all the students who have done academically well, the first top students are in every school subject, every school discipline appears on your merit list. I am proud to say that in Trinidad and Tobago, in certain disciplines, in certain subjects. Davy. All the top 10 students are from Trinidad and Tobago. Moreover, in many of the. In some. Sorry, in some of these schools as well, that we see appearing in the top 10 on the merit list. Some of these are public schools in the rural areas. Let me repeat that. Some of these schools appearing on the top 10 in the merit list. Caribbean, I'm talking about this Caribbean are our public schools in the rural areas, including Tobago. Because many times we harp on and we Applaud and recommend what we consider to be prestige schools. And I have an issue as well with the prestige school issue. But of course it is highly commendable when you look at and consider that some of our public schools in the rural areas are doing extremely well. So much so that they are listed on that particular merit list. So a proud moment indeed for the PTA and of course for me personally when we see our students excelling in this way.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: With that being said, as we continue with paying attention to some of the things that are really affecting students, what are some of the things, challenges that you saw took place in this school term that you felt really affected students? Maybe teachers or even parents by extension.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Listen, the issue of teacher shortage is bringing extreme pain and concern to National Parent Teacher Association. You go in some schools daily and teachers are absent, not on the payroll for some reason or the other. Every teacher who does not come to school for whatever reason could be administrative, could be through pregnancy, could be through sick leave, etc. Those students are disadvantaged, they are disenfranchised. Because when you compare them equitably now with students from other schools whose teachers are out every day, very committed, very loyal, going beyond the call of duty, these students are being disenfranchised. I will go further to say that we have written to the Ministry just last week with regards to the chronic absenteeism in some schools of some teachers and the vacancy list that of course seems to be rising, escalating, out of control. So it means that the Teaching Service Commission, the TSC and the HR Department of the Education must get together and address the situation with great dispatch. Because come next term you're not going to be so lenient. You're going to be taking a hard line approach to the powers that be that our students deserve better. And you must ensure that all teachers are installed and are making productive use of the time available to the students. The teacher shortage is our main concern this particular term.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: Let's take a call. Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning.
[00:13:53] Speaker D: A pleasant morning, Davy. Pleasant morning. Dear Stuart. Mr. Morales, here is to see the guidelines that are second that the guidelines where teachers or the loopholes where teachers can, can take advantage of the leave system and maybe the authorities may need to look at it and revisit it. I mean they have certain, certain leave guideline leave guidelines that are outlined in the contract when he became a teacher. But you know, in every job speculating teacher alone you have some people just advantage or take advantage of the loopholes. And in case of the teaching in teaching sector you have one article absent. Now you put a string on another teacher on the principal school system.
So yes, we have to look at it that way and maybe the government have to re legislate or look at some other agreement or see if the person has some challenge or whatever because sometimes people are challenges and it didn't need to kind of like adjust your ass. I don't know it being manifested and they've been accent or sometimes, you know, whatever it is. So maybe we need to go that, to go that way because it really having a serious impact on the whole teaching curriculum and the teachers and the whole system.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: Engaged tutor as well, the union, we will certainly want to engage them as well in this kind of conversation because we have to ensure that our students are taught on a daily basis. Productive time.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: All right, thank you so much. Hello. Good morning.
Hello.
[00:15:27] Speaker E: Yeah, morning.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Morning.
[00:15:28] Speaker D: Mr. Levy, yesterday I recorded concerning the post issue.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Oh, I. There was. Yeah, the guy. Okay.
You didn't send me the information. I didn't get it.
I told you. Send me a WhatsApp to 3061065 with your name and everything, the addresses that you live at now and the address that is sending the mail to so that I can pass it on to him.
Check it out. Do it one more time. I still have about 10 minutes again, so send it to me to 3061065.
[00:16:03] Speaker E: All right.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: So I mean, let me look at the parent teacher involvement speaking with Ms. Glasgow last week. One of the things, I mean, I and all for a point in time in my life thought it was, you know, you know, unproductive to attend these parent teacher meetings at schools. You know, it's always in the afternoon after school. You have this to do, that to do, you know.
And I did ask Ms. Glasgow the importance of it. But from the President's perspective, with your membership and your team, your administrative team, what are some of the things that you all are putting in place for the new academic year to really encourage parents to be very interactive and engaged in the pta.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Well, let me just say as a precursor to that as well, we are looking at legislation to be passed in order to encourage our parents to attend PTA meetings. Because one of the issues that they gave or one of the reasons that they proffer for not being able to attend meetings is because they do not get time off their jobs, for example, to be able to go. So we are firstly attending, approaching the government for all public servants to be given time off, of course, with pay so that they can attend their PTA meetings. This, of course, would be a legal issue. Now we are taking legislation to parliament with regards to that. And once we get that done, hopefully put in place, we are also going to be asking the private sector to do likewise because again, we are seeing at least one PTA meeting per term is all. We are asking for all parents to go into their schools to be able to get the requisite time out. We also looking at, as I said before, parenting seminars or parenting workshops. We're also looking at something specific to the men tv because we have a lot of men who are involved in pta. And men need to be more visible, need to be more vocal, need to be more out there. Because traditionally the trend is women would attend PTA meetings. But if we let our charges, our children know that. Listen, because mom is interested and enthused about going to your PTA meeting. I as your father, I as your grandfather, as your uncle, I am just as enthused, excited and willing to go to the PTA meetings and let my voice be heard. Just the same, we are actually rolling out a program devi and the listening public specific to men. And let us see how men can be more actively involved and engaged in our PTA meeting.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: All right, thank you so much. Keller, good morning.
Hello.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Hi. Morning.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Good morning.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:36] Speaker E: It's a very interesting topic this morning with the NPTA there.
And I am all for technology, but I think these schools, they need to improve the infrastructure before you bring technology into the classroom because it makes no sense given everybody a laptop and the school doesn't have a proper WI fi connection where the students can access it.
Right.
I think the NPTA is on the right foot there where they are advocating for a better system to fill the vacancies in the ministry because many schools are suffering, both my kids, their schools, there many vacancies. And it is becoming a problem, especially when you have unsupervised kids, you know. And yeah, there's a system in place. I know there are substitute teacher system. So I think when teachers are on leave, like I think one of the caller was talking about, you know, teachers do have instances where they need to take extensive leave.
I think the substitute system needs to step in there and be a little better so principals can access it a little more easier and it can be implemented.
Yeah, that's my take on it.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: All right, thank you so much.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Let me just stay with regards to the connectivity part of the reason why the laptops have been rolling out so late because they should have been rolled out in the month of September. But part of the reason why they only started end of November into December is because they were looking at the connectivity in our schools. And my information that all our secondary schools are now up to 500 megabytes in order to be able to handle the connectivity with regards to the infrastructure. Listen, several of our schools are post 50 years old, some of them even 100 years old. And there needs to be in some instances a complete overhaul we building even of our schools because they are so aged. And we are looking at how the government can now because all this cannot be handled in the fiscal budgetary allocation. And they might have to now go out looking at some corporate help, even external help, external financial assistance in order to be able to rebuild some of our schools and to improve the infrastructure in our schools. Does this work in progress?
[00:20:47] Speaker B: Do they have to give back the laptop at the end of the five years?
[00:20:50] Speaker A: My information is that yes, it has to be returned, but I can always confirm that again with the ministry.
Yeah, okay, sure. That they can always be, you know, and we. Exactly. All right.
[00:21:05] Speaker B: Hello. Good morning.
[00:21:07] Speaker D: Hey Davey. You know, looking at this thing, you know, like the health sector, can our, can the treasury really, I mean put the proper infrastructure into the education system but it shouldn't need to be, you know, we had to look maybe down the road at some form of like contributor, some form of assistance in order to assist because you know, in the school, in the school environment you have contractors, you have everybody there, the whole of society came from the school managing doctor. So maybe we may have to look at some as, as he was rightly saying the last point there some corporate assistance. Because you know, in my, in my, in our, in my small way, when we went primary school we used to kind of harness all the skills of the parents and we used to get a lot of little things done, little fight fix, we had to harass nobody and minor repairs done and we had a nice thing going. So maybe we might have a look at it. We could work with the corporation in different areas and so on and do that because across the board it's impossible really for the, for the treasury and the government, you know, no matter what, what system or person must employ to actually see. Because within our school they have about 2 to 300 children transiting toilets and things every day. So every week I got some little toilet handle broken and some little thing and it's impossible really for the, for the former governmental ministry, former ministry level to really come down to that small nitty gritty and handle that when you have all the major projects like the rebuilding and the maintenance.
You need to have a proper maintenance program in place because you know, they build a big pretty school and then we do have a proper maintenance backup and a couple years the same school back down to zero. I listen up there for comments supporting it.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: Bye.
Let me tell you how. So on target this caller is I make the point two ways. Education is everybody's business. One and two. The national economy and national development, both are hinged upon the education system. And if you're able to get our education system right, this country will be so progressive, would be so sustained, would be so successful. I threw the cat among the pigeons TV at our last conference of delegates and suggested is this probably an opportune time for the government to to consider an education levy similar to what the guy was saying, there's health surcharge, for example. Could we consider small as it is probably a 0.5% as an education levy because there's no way an $8 billion allocation can adequately take care of the education system in any fiscal. There's no way. We have to look at other means, measures, mechanisms put in place to ensure that we can adequately finance education in Trinidad and Tobago. So I throw that out again. The cat among the pigeons education levy. Could we consider that?
[00:24:00] Speaker B: Sure. I. I do understand.
[00:24:03] Speaker E: All right.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: Does the laptop have WI fi connection? Yes, they do.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Yes, they do. Yes. And of course they come now with an AI branded arrangement as well where you can also key in to AI for your maths and English language. The demonstrations were made at every install as well. At every distribution is an AI component that is being explained to the students that they can get additional help and support via AI.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Walter, I want to thank you very much for coming through and passing in with me this morning. It was great having you. Thank you so much. And we look forward to another one wonderful edition of the NPTA Speaks come next week Wednesday Godspeare Life. Have a good one and be safe out there.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability, the all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5.
