By Sue-Ann Wayow

SCHOOL children will have one additional week vacation before the new school year starts in September.

The new date for the opening of the school term is now September 8, 2025, instead of September 2, 2025, as previously advertised by the Ministry of Education.

Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath gave the reasons behind the change of date at a post-Cabinet press briefing held at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s on Thursday.

“When we looked at the previous schedule, the first term would have had 15 weeks, the second term -12 weeks, and the third term 12 weeks. And what we did was to balance the distribution,” he explained.

He further said the first term was usually longer and everybody gets burnt out, including teachers, pupils and parents.

The total number of weeks would still be a total of 39 weeks for the school year, Dr Dowlath said.

“No teaching would be lost,” he reassured.

He also said the additional week would allow for infrastructure upgrades to be completed at 278 educational institutions.

Up to last week, of the 278 institutions, 257 bills of quantities were received, 207 cost reviews completed, 182 approvals from the ministry and 79 contracts were awarded, the minister disclosed.

He expects that by the end of this week, the numbers will increase.

Cabinet has also approved 100 contract Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) teachers including assistant instructors I,II,III.

Dr Dowlath  said 165 posts were vacant over the past four years and the government has taken a bold step to reverse years of neglect in that area in the public schools.

He said, “These contracts will be publicly advertised and recruitment will begin immediately.”

The 165 vacancies spanned 12 subject areas and affected 95 secondary schools across all seven educational districts with Caroni and Victoria districts recording the highest gaps, Dr Dowlath said.

He said, “This is a situation we have inherited as the present government and we are working quickly to ensure that this shortage of qualified TVET  teachers is filled as quickly as possible.”

The National Training Agency (NTA) is an umbrella agency for effecting reform in TVET in Trinidad and Tobago.

For the other 65 positions, persons will be interviewed by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) with whom the Ministry of Education has been working closely with for the past three months, the minister said.

He also said the TSC was working to fill leadership positions – 85 principal positions vacant in the secondary school system within the vacation period.

The TSC was also working to appoint deans and heads in secondary schools.

Dr Dowlath said, “They are fast-tracking those positions so by the time the first term re-opens, we are expecting that at the leadership position, that principals both at primary and secondary and heads and deans especially at the secondary level, will be filled.”

Also, the Ministry of Education has received permission from the TSC to interview T1 teachers – at the primary school level.

With respect to the school’s curriculum, it was being reviewed, he said and the public will hear more about the involvement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) soon.

Dr Dowlath said, “One of the things we are looking at, is increasing the employability skills.”

He again said there was a need to improve the skills especially in numeracy and literacy at both primary and secondary school levels.

“It is a holistic approach that we are taking as we go forward,” the minister said.