 Ministry officials, principals, teachers, students, and silvery staff, parents, fellows and Lucian. The pleasure is mine to address you at the beginning of a new academic year for the first time as Minister of Education. The start of a new school year is one of the most anticipated events on the national school calendar. It usually generates lots of excitement and anticipation. Among students, parents, teachers, and school administrators. However, amidst the excitement and anticipation are a few of our students who are nervous and anxious because they are entering school for the first time or are moving from one school environment to another and so the uncertainty gets the better of them if only for a day. As we gear up for the commencement of the 2021-2022 academic year, we are once again faced with the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our initial plan was to have a full-fledged reopening of schools where teachers, students, and and silvery staff would all report to the various school buildings for classes and other school-related activities. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has forced us once again to part from what we initially planned and so students must stay at home to receive their lessons until such time that health authorities and personnel from the Ministry of Education limit safe to return to face-to-face student-teacher interaction. The sharp increase in the number of COVID cases means that we must resort to the distributed learning modality where classes will be conducted on a virtual platform for students with smart devices and internet connectivity. In instances where students do not possess smart devices or internet infrastructure, teachers will endeavour to prepare handouts, worksheets, and other relevant packages that students will engage at home. Of course, the decision to resort to the distributed or blended methodology was arrived at after consultation with our various stakeholders including the Ministry of Health, the St. Lucia Teachers Union, and the National Principles Association amongst others. Notwithstanding the hurdles and challenges, I am pleased as your Minister of Education to welcome all of our students, teachers, principals, and support personnel to the start of a new school year which officially commences on Monday, September 13, 2021. The Government of St. Lucia through the Ministry of Education is committed to ensuring that this academic year is one that improves on the experiences of last year. As a Ministry, it is our intent to reduce on the loss of instruction time. The expectation is that school administrators and teachers through the various training exercises undertaken will be better prepared to engage in learning and teaching this year through the proposed distributed approach. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of students in our school system who do not possess a tablet or laptop computer or internet connectivity. This situation of students not having devices to take advantage of the virtual learning platform concerns me tremendously as Minister and I have caused it to be the subject of very robust discussions amongst education administrators and my Cabinet colleagues. Thankfully, upon uprising in him of the situation, the Honourable Prime Minister without delay instructed that through the requisite channels and employing the most transparent government approved procurement guidelines, the Ministry of Education makes available at the soonest almost 4,000 laptop computers to students in need. Upon arrival on Island, those devices will first be distributed amongst incoming from one students and from two in the secondary school system. There are also other initiatives afoot to secure devices for primary school students as well, in particular those in Grade 6. This is the direction in which the world is moving and our students will not be left behind. COVID-19 has taken a toll on us as a society and our children have not been spared or exempted. We will ensure that the necessary support mechanisms are in place to help students recover socially, emotionally, and academically. Principal teachers, I urge you to take the time, listen to your students as they express how they feel, how their lives have changed, and how they handle their situations and challenges. Let us be flexible and supportive more than ever before as we embrace new approaches to meet the needs of our students while providing them with the best educational experience in the circumstances. Thus, our school guidance counselors will continue to support our school personnel, noting the number of socio-emotional challenges that are being faced. There is nothing we desire more as a government than a full-fledged reopening of schools where students can live home and take their rightful places in the classrooms that have been prepared for them. The school is the safest place for many of our students to spend their day. Since the advent of COVID-19, a significant number of our students have had to stay home in some cases unsupervised because their parents are at work and those students have fallen free to unsavory activities and in some instances they have been violated by individuals in whose care they were entrusted. The Ministry of Education will continue to regularly monitor the health situation, review our processes towards improving academic recovery and minimizing instruction loss. It will be a trying time for all of us, especially as we still grapple with the impact of COVID-19 on our families, communities and livelihoods. The Ministry of Education cannot do it on its own. We therefore seek to invoke the national spirit of community and patients as we work together in supporting our education system. Parents' yours has always been an important role in the education of your child. However, in this format of instruction and learning, your role is even more critical to the education of your child. We encourage you to provide the necessary oversight and support to your child during this academic year. We need an all-hands-on-deck approach, which also includes support and understanding of employers and other corporate partners as we seek to overcome the challenges faced by our education system at this time. It will be remiss of me to conclude this address. Without once again placing on the public record my gratitude and that of the government to the hundreds of teachers who drive this education system of ours on the trying circumstances week after week after week. Fellow teachers, your contribution to nation-building will forever be appreciated by the government and people of St. Lucia. On behalf of the Prime Minister, my cabinet colleagues, the senior management team of the Ministry of Education and on my own personal behalf, let me once again wish all principals, teachers, support staff and students a productive and successful academic year. When we spoke, unfortunately, there were more than 4,000 mothers in the school system who had a laptop and tablet. I had the opportunity to inform the Prime Minister and the cabinet about this situation. And then the Prime Minister said to me that the Ministry of Education will do everything it can to help us join 4,000 tablets and laptops to be available to mothers in this country. We had the opportunity to help everyone to cooperate and work together. We have the opportunity to work with the Minister of Education and the Union of Teachers, the school organization and everyone who is involved in the education system of our country. COVID has never been such a situation that we don't like it at all. But we have to keep in touch so that we can be safe. We have the opportunity to do what we are doing. And even if COVID has affected us, we have to be confident that it has affected the education system and that the school is safe in the most way it can affect our country in the most way it can. We have the opportunity to help all teachers, mothers and parents. We have a good year in the education system of our country. Thank you, thank you, thank you.