Hon. Kenson Casimir Announces Major Education Initiatives and Support Systems for School Reopening

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Honorable Kenson Casimir has announced a series of significant educational initiatives aimed at improving the school reopening experience and supporting students across St. Lucia. A primary focus is on teacher welfare, with the introduction of a midterm break specifically designed to provide relief during the academic term, addressing long-standing concerns raised by educators. Furthermore, early childhood institutions will receive substantial financial support totaling $3,000 per center, alongside an additional $100 allocated directly toward tuition for every child attending these facilities. This fiscal injection is part of a broader commitment to ensuring that foundational education remains accessible and well-resourced for the youngest learners in the country. To address the growing needs of at-risk youth, the administration is launching a new Educational and Skills Pathways program in collaboration with care organizations. This initiative seeks to identify students who are either struggling academically or have dropped out of school entirely, offering them tailored academic, technical, and vocational pathways to re-engage them in the education system. The government is also expanding its support staff by hiring eight additional counselors and two social workers to better handle psychosocial issues within schools, while two new truancy officers will work alongside law enforcement to ensure regular attendance. These measures are designed to provide deeper insight into students' home lives and circumstances, allowing for more effective interventions that keep children in the classroom. Financial aid opportunities have been clarified and expanded to assist families facing confusion regarding bursaries and scholarships. The Ministry of Education has confirmed that government bursaries will be distributed based on merit once the delayed CSEC results are fully processed, ensuring that deserving students receive their financial support without unnecessary delay. In a major announcement for higher education, 100 first-generation scholarship recipients have been identified to attend Monroe University for their bachelor's degrees. These scholarships are strictly merit-based and reserved for students who demonstrate strong academic performance and come from households where no prior member has obtained a university degree, marking a historic opportunity for one hundred young St. Lucians to pursue higher education.

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We will be ensuring that for the first time that we have a midterm break especially for teachers. We most of the meetings I've been having with them they have been saying that [music and snorts] during the term and anybody who's taught before I thank God that I had that experience will empathize with them and so we will be instituting a midterm break for them. [music] We will be providing again for early childhood institutions [music] $3,000 worth of support to these early childhood schools and an additional $100 [music] towards the sort of tuition to every child at that center. Laptop distribution commences I think it would be the first time that we'll be doing it this early. Every child you know under [music] the solution of the party government has been given a free laptop so we will be continuing in that vein. This school year we will be instituting an SP program which is educational and skills pathways for at risk youth. With this program we hoping to [music] institute and work with care to identify at risk youth whether they in school or out of school to bring them back into the education system and really sit down with them get an idea of what academically, what technically, what vocationally we could do [music] to bring them back into the school system and to absorb some of those who are in the school system but are more technical in nature to set them on a career path that is in line with the actual capabilities, their skills so as to ensure that they become more productive St. Lucians. >> [music] >> Eight additional counselors will be employed this year. We know that we have some psychosocial issues [music] at our schools and the current crop of counselors were just not enough to deal with the sheer number of interventions that we need on a daily, a monthly, [music] annual basis and so we will be ensuring that we have eight new counselors around St. Lucia. In addition to that two social workers [music] cuz social workers they are more of the on ground individuals that can go into the households to get a better deeper appreciation for what is going on in that child's life and to pass on that information to the counselors so that we [music] can again set our young people on the right path in academia. And of course, we are doing this year ensuring that we have two additional truancy officers which [music] will be working in concert with social workers and the counselors to find out why it is that some of our students do not attend class, do not go to school, uh why they are absent frequently and again [music] so as to ensure that in our education system at schools that we have a better appreciation for what's going on with the students and to [music] find in the actual intervention through the social worker and then the counselor >> [music] >> to ensure that we have our students go to school as frequently as possible. Um with truancy officers, we'll also be working with um the St. [music] Elizabeth Parish Police Force because we know that truancy is illegal in this country. Students, children at certain age supposed to be at school. And so we will be taking the obvious moral suasion approach, but when we need legally need to step in, we will ensure [music] that we step in to ensure that our children go to school. A lot of individuals have been asking and confused about the St. Elizabeth bursaries. Uh we had a situation this year where the um the CSEC results were a little tardy, uh later than we expected. So we have a number of parents um thinking that they are not getting [music] the government bursaries. The Ministry of Education we have received those CSEC results. We are ensuring that we provide government bursaries to the students based on merit. Of course, we have to look at the results and so that is a process that we are undergoing. Speaking of on merit, we identified [music] firstly and we announce here that 75 students would have gotten first generation scholarships to attend Munro this year. Um we went through the process of uh the Ministry of Education [music] identifying those 75 individuals on merit, we have to emphasize based on results and how [music] they are doing it how they are doing in school. Uh the Ministry of Education in collaboration with Monroe went on to do an additional 25. So, 100 >> [music] >> 100 young solutions will be given the opportunity to obtain their bachelor's degree through a first-generation scholarship with the government of St. Lucia and [music] Monroe University on merit results. You have to perform well at school. Um you have to be [music] a student that has shown that you have a level of uh attainment in academia. And of course, the Ministry will ensure that they do their due diligence to ensure that you are indeed a first-generation a [music] first-time applicant of a bachelor's degree from your household.