Committed to stakeholder engagement, school safety and security, members of the Ministry of Education’s Strategic Executive Team led by the Honourable Anthony Garcia Minister of Education and Dr the Honourable Lovell Francis Minister of State in the Ministry of Education met with Commissioner of Police Mr. Gary Griffith and officials of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS). The meeting took place at the Ministry’s Head Office in Port of Spain at 9am and discussions centered on the continued partnership between the two entities and the evolution of the current arrangement.
Areas such as truancy, indiscipline on and off of the school compound and strategies for mitigating the interests of young persons in criminal activity formed part of the agenda. Acting Commissioner of Police Community Relations Patsy Joseph and Corporal Jacey Small of the Community Police Central Division and Head of the Central Education Multi-sector Committee shared with the meeting the success of the programme in the Central area/Caroni Education District and how some of the tools used can be applied to other areas of Trinidad and Tobago.
Minister Garcia reiterated his call for ensuring that our schools were safe spaces and were primarily for the purpose of teaching and learning. He stated that “Our meeting today must not be misconstrued to be a show of force or that we will be turning our schools into prisons. We will be working with the police service to ensure that we continue to keep instances of indiscipline at a minimum and that our students are safe and responsible on the nation’s roadways.”
Upon the meeting’s conclusion a committee was formed and tasked with managing the communication between the Ministry and the TTPS and ensuring that the roll out of programmes is done in the most effective and efficient manner. The committee comprises executive members from both the Ministry and the TTPS. It was found that continued partnership will be beneficial to both organizations as a more disciplined and productive student population later becomes a more disciplined and productive society