Back to School Address by Hon. Kenson Casimir

[music] Fellow St. solutions. [music] As we stand at the beginning of another academic year, there's a familiar sense of anticipation [music] across our nation. Every September brings with it a special energy, the excitement of new beginnings, renewed responsibilities, and another opportunity for our children to learn, grow, and move closer to realizing their dreams. The reopening of school is about much more than returning to classrooms. For me, the reopening of school is always a powerful reminder of why education matters. Behind every school gate is a child with potential. Behind every classroom door is an opportunity to shape a life. And behind every successful learner is a community of people who have chosen to believe in that child's future. It is therefore with tremendous optimism and a deep sense of responsibility that I welcome our students, our teachers, principals, parents, education officers, counselors, curriculum officers, support staff, and every member of our education community to the 2026 2027 academic year. We begin this year encouraged by what our students and educators have demonstrated. Our students continue to distinguish themselves, including through outstanding regional performance in the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment. Their achievements remind us that St. Lucian students can compete successfully at the highest levels, but achievements must never make us complacent. Our responsibility is to build an education system in which every child has the opportunity to succeed regardless of ability, economic circumstances, community or learning need. And this year we are moving forward with more focus and deeper purpose guided by strategic imperatives and initiatives. Firstly we will strengthen the psychosocial support available within our education system through the addition of eight counselors and two social workers. Two new truency officers have been recruited to provide the support required for children who are absent from school. We cannot simply record these absences. The truency officers are tasked to reach out to the children and family and work to reconnect those learners with education. This year the department will introduce a program coined the educational and skills pathways for atrisisk youth or SP where opportunities are created for both in school and out of school youth to develop the knowledge, practical skills and competencies they need to transition successfully into further education, training and the world of work. This initiative recognizes an important truth. A young [snorts] person may need a different pathway, but that does not mean that he or she has less potential. ESP therefore forms part of our broader commitment to ensuring that fewer young people fall through the cracks. Now, as we focus on the well-being of our students, we must be equally mindful of the people who care for, teach, and inspire them every day, our teachers. Teaching is deeply rewarding, but is also demanding. Our educators carry significant responsibilities both inside and outside the classroom and we recognize that their mental health and overall well-being matter. We cannot expect our teachers to continuously pour into our children without also creating opportunities for them to pause, recharge, and rejuvenate. It is for this reason that the midterm break has been incorporated into this academic year, providing our teachers and students with an important period to rest, reset, and return to school refreshed and ready for the remainder of the term. This is part of a broader recognition that teachers well-being is directly connected to the quality of teaching and learning. When our teachers are supported, valued and given the opportunity to care for their own well-being, they are better positioned to give their best to the children and trusted to them. So to our teachers, I say your mental health matters, your well-being matters, and you matter. This year, we are also placing renewed emphasis on extra co-curricular development. Our vision is for every school to have at least one enrichment club. Education must develop the whole child. Somewhere in our schools is a future musician waiting for an instrument, an entrepreneur waiting for an idea, an athlete waiting for an opportunity, a debater waiting for a microphone, or young scientists waiting for an experiment. We must create spaces where these talents can emerge. Because schools cannot accomplish this work alone, we'll establish the National Parent Teacher Community Association, strengthening the partnership among the home, the school, and the community. When parents, teachers, and communities work together, our children are the beneficiaries. We are also preparing our educators for the next chapter of curriculum reform. Throughout this academic year, teachers and principles will participate in training and capacity building in preparation for implementation of the new digital OACs primary curriculum in 2027 2028. At the lower secondary level, we will continue advancing the digital curriculum, ensuring that learning becomes increasingly engaging, relevant, and responsive to the world our students inhabit. Our commitment to multilingual education will also continue. The pilot teaching of Quol will continue across 15 primary schools throughout our education districts, while Mandarin will be introduced into additional secondary schools. Our children must be firmly rooted in who they are as St. solutions while being equipped to engage confidently with the wider world. We know that transformation must also address areas where our students require additional support. Mathematics remain one such priority. This year, we'll introduce additional mathematics support teachers, including drawing upon the invaluable experience of retired educators who still have much to contribute to our education system. Our transformation of technical and vocational education and training will also continue. Enrollment across our four TVET schools is increasing and each institution will place greater emphasis on its flagship programs. For too long, societies have created an artificial divide between academic and technical education. We are dismantling that thinking. The student who designs, builds, creates, repairs, produces, cooks, cultivates, or innovates is no less capable than the student who follows a traditional academic pathway. Our responsibility is to help every learner discover a pathway through which talent can become skill, skill can become opportunity, and opportunity can become economic independence. One of the areas about which I am especially encouraged is our continued movement towards inclusive education. Every child belongs. Our students with special educational needs must increasingly have the opportunities to learn, participate, and thrive alongside their peers with the appropriate support. To advance this commitment, special education teachers in our mainstream schools have received training to better support students with disabilities, particularly students with autism. We'll also provide additional assistive devices to help remove barriers to learning. Importantly, two purpose-built buses have been provided to transport students with special needs from their homes to school and back. Because access to education means very little if a child cannot physically get to school. As a government, our commitment begins long before primary school. Investing in universal access to early childhood education is a major initiative of this government. While the framework is being finalized to ensure adequate access and quality education, pertinent parent gaps are already being addressed. This academic year, each early childhood education center will receive $3,000, while tuition support of $100 per child per term will continue for students in our early childhood centers. These are not simply investments in preschool. They are investments in the foundation upon which future learning is built. And because a hungry child cannot give full attention to learning, we expanding the banana a day program to include all students. This is a simple initiative with an important purpose. Supporting students nutrition while connecting our education system with local agricultural production. Fellow St. Lucians, government can build schools. We can provide technology. We can employ counselors, train teachers, expand programs, and invest millions of dollars in infrastructure. But government cannot transform education alone. Teachers, I ask you to continue believing in the potential of every child who enters our classroom. Principles, continue creating schools in which excellence, accountability, compassion, and innovation can flourish. Parents, remain engaged, ask about homework, attend meetings, speak with teachers, celebrate effort as much as achievements. And to our students, this education system exists for you. But your success also requires something from you. Attend school, apply yourself, read, ask questions, explore your talents, respect your teachers and your peers, make responsible choices as we open the doors of our schools for the 2026 2027 academic year. Let us open even wider the doors of opportunities. Let us build an an education system that is inclusive in whom it serves, innovative in who and how it teaches, ambitious in what it expects, and uncompromising in its belief in the potential of every St. Lucian child. May this academic year be one of discovery, growth, achievement, and renewed responsibility. I wish you all a safe, productive, and a successful 2026 2027 academic year. May God bless our students, our educators, and by extension our beautiful nation, St. Lucia. Thank you. [music]