By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 16, 2020
It was a polite letter. It was sent to me after my article appeared in last Sunday’s Express. It read: “My name is Denise Brathwaite. I am the Vice President of the South East Port of Spain Secondary Teachers’ Association. I came across your article last night. It was quite an interesting read. But I am eager to discuss it with you further.”
Continue reading The Hot Prison
Dr Keith Rowley
March 13, 2020 – newsday.co.tt
Madam Speaker, I have been authorised by the Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago to make the following statement.
Colleagues, fellow citizens, it is in times like these that we define who we are as a people. We are currently facing two global phenomena that affect us directly and are both largely outside of our realm of control. The first is the widespread presence and deleterious effects of COVID 19, commonly known as the Coronavirus. The second is the serious global disruption in the prices of oil, gas and energy-based products that the international market places are facing and responding to in ways that are, in many instances, unprecedented.
Continue reading Full statement of PM on covid19
By Stephen Kangal
May 15, 2019
I was there at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Torouba on Friday 10 May to witness first hand with my colleagues Bedoor, Zainool and Ramlogan Mahabir, ball by ball the progressive demolition of the Presentation Chaguanas (PC) Team from the Caroni plains that dared to challenge the Hillview (HVC) side originating from the Northern Hills in the Finals of the T20 Secondary School Championships.
Continue reading Adulating the Hillview T20 Supremacy
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 02, 2019
On Tuesday, March 26, Elton Herbert Nelson, a good friend and fellow teacher at Curepe E. C., now named Holy Saviour (Curepe) Anglican School, passed away. I could not allow his passing to go unnoticed and unrecorded; such was his stature and the indelible contribution he made to the life of Trinidadians and Tobagonians.
Continue reading Elton Herbert Nelson: A Phenomenal Man
By Raffique Shah
April 12, 2019
When the pupils and staff of Presentation College, Chaguanas, return to classes in two weeks, their prime focus will be on major examinations at the end of the academic year—promotions exams for those in the junior and intermediate forms, and CSEC and CAPE for those who are transitioning to the upper reaches of secondary level education and those who will enter universities.
Continue reading Presentation Chaguanas at 60
By Stephen Kangal
March 23, 2019
On the occasion of the observance of 150 years of Canadian Presbyterianism introduced by Dr John Morton in 1868 into Trinidad to rescue the rurally- isolated and marginalised sugar- working indentures from educational neglect and English illiteracy it is right to celebrate, emulate and imitate this rich template of multidisciplinary excellence achieved by the high- performing schools administered by this small and dwindling denominational organization.
However while the educational platform built by this small church largely through volunteerism is a success story its primary evangelical component suffers from increasing statistical decline.
Continue reading Celebrating An Educational Template of Presbyterian
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 12, 2018
PART 2
When enslaved Africans (they were the majority population then) won their full freedom in 1838, there was an urgent need to establish an educational system that combined their ways of knowing with the needs of the dominant colonial class. Sir Henry MacLeod, governor of the island, sent the following dispatch to Lord Stanley, the Secretary of State: “I should submit to Your Lordship that there never was a country where some general situation of education was more required than in Trinidad” (May 1, 1840).
Continue reading The Incredible Dream
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 05, 2018
PART 1
I don’t know if it was “the cleansing water” as I called it last week but all of a sudden the newspapers were filled with reflections on education and the role it should play in resuscitating our society. It was almost as though these profound meditations came down from heaven, demanding that we fulfill an age-old dream of togetherness.
The first iteration came from Iman Yasin Abu Bakr when he eulogized Ricardo “the Gladiator” Welsh. He observed: “Many children were full of rage and parents lapsed on the job of keeping them in school. He [Abu Bakr] stressed the importance of this saying education was the only chance a people had to elevate themselves” (Newsday, October 28).
Continue reading The Illusive Dream
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 04, 2018
PART 1
It was Indian Arrival Day. I just had to go down to Paravati Girls Hindu College, Debe, to hear what Sat Maharaj, leader of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) had to say about the importance of Indian Arrival Day to his community and his response to the negative media coverage that attended his demand that Nafisah Nakhid not wear her hijab at his Maha Sabha School, which he said violated the school’s dress code.
Continue reading Preparing the Way for Kamla
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 18, 2017
PART 1 — PART 2 — PART 3 — PART 4 — PART 5
UTT was established fourteen years ago. One estimate suggests T&T taxpayers have spent close to $2 billion on its upkeep. If an independent body has not evaluated UTT, it should do so and make its findings public. Citizens should look at UTT’s efficacy before government pours more money into its operations. Moreover, the following actions should be undertaken to make UTT a more viable institution:
Continue reading Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 5