 Permit me to make an apology. I had some difficulty logging on. I have been a little bit under the weather, but I'm here tonight. Can we go ahead and start? Please, yes. Yes. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to this Town Hall meeting hosted by District 4. I am Marie George, Allied Education Officer, and we are going to start this evening's Town Hall meeting with prayers. The principal of Ansari Primary School is going to lead the prayers first. Mr. Isambar, are you on? Yes, I'm there, Miss. Thank you, Mr. Isambar. Can you go ahead and lead the prayers? Yes, Miss. Let's get ready for prayers. Philippians, for fraternities, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Father in Heaven, we thank you for this privilege of prayer. We thank you for this gathering here this evening. We pray, O Father, that your Holy Spirit will ever be present with us throughout our discourse this evening. May your spirit guide our thoughts and may your spirit lead the discussion. I pray for blessings upon the Chairman of this meeting. I pray blessing upon every facilitator, everyone who will be participating in this meeting. I pray blessing upon every parent, every teacher who is now present at this meeting, Father. We ask, O Lord, that you continue to bless St. Lucia as we review the Education Act. Father, help us to participate and our discussions will be meaningful. And at the end of it all, whatever the act is, will be for the benefit of our students and, by extension, the entire country of St. Lucia. May you continue to guide, may you continue to protect us. And when time shall be no more and your Kingdom shall usher in, help us by then, Father, with our thoughts surrendered into your hands. In Jesus' most wonderful name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Mr. Isambut. Good evening again, everyone. We have with us Mrs. Paula Cook-Makinan, Makinan, sorry about the pronunciation. We also have Miss Edith Emmanuel on the call with us this evening. Let me say a special good evening to all the schools in District 4, the parents, the teachers, the principals in District 4, Ansleray Infant, Ansleray Primary, Roso R.C. Combined, Stanley John Audler Memorial Secondary School, La Pomingo Combined School, Cicero R.C. Combined, Lady Gordon Opportunity Center, Cicero Secondary School, Pod Second Combined, Bexar Infant, Bexar Primary, Labeye S.D. Primary, Millet Primary. These 13 schools make up District 4 and we are supposed to have the parents from these schools here, the students, the teachers, the principals. Also, we are supposed to have community members from the Ansleray Primary School. We should have a town hall meeting there. We should have parents, community groups in there, Millet at the Millet Resource Center. We should have persons there as well as the Roso R.C. Combined School. So we welcome the community groups. We welcome the mothers and fathers group, the youth groups, all the parents who are on this call tonight. We thank you all stakeholders for being here and just so that you know, the Education Act is a legal document that guides our practice, all the stakeholders, the students, the parents, the principals, the education officer, the chief education officer. So this is like our rule book that we go to, but it is a legal document and there has been need for us to review that document. So as we review the document, we have invited all our stakeholders to be part of the discussion, to be part of, to know what is in the document. And so this is our legal right to let you know and our responsibility to let you know what is there. So this meeting tonight is very, very significant and we thank you for being here. We ask for your patience, your understanding, your listening ear. You can make note and then when it is time for answers, question and answers, depending on how it goes, you will have a voice. So once again, thank you for being here and supporting the district. I now hand over to the chair, to the other chair. Thank you very much, Mrs. George Arlan. It's wonderful to be with everyone this evening. Really appreciate the introduction and the setting of the stage for this important discussion this evening. As Mrs. George Arlan said, my name is Paula Cook McKinnon. I am the principal of Mind Bloom Consulting who in partnership with St. Francis Xavier University has been working with educators in St. Lucia to develop a proposed new education act that we will be discussing this evening. With me also tonight is Dr. Monica Williams. And Dr. Williams has been instrumental in developing the proposed act that we are discussing this evening. And I wondered, Dr. Williams, if you would like to say hello. Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Paula. It's a great pleasure to be here. We've been having wonderful discussions in the town hall meetings, and I look forward to another great conversation this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And also a member of our team who has been very involved in the work on the Education Act is Mrs. Fortuna Anthony, probably no stranger to many of you, former chief education officer from St. Lucia. Mrs. Anthony wanted to be with us for all of the town halls, but she had a commitment this evening. And so unfortunately is not able to be with us. So we'll amble on as best we can without her. This evening is for you, and it is for you to become more familiar with the changes that we have proposed in collaboration with stakeholders in education to the Education Act, and also to provide for you to become more familiar with and provide input on the regulations that have been developed for the first time. We hope to be very organized in our approach this evening. So you've already had the welcome and devotion, and we then will move to the schedule and purpose for the meeting and very briefly describe that and then describe, provide a brief description, an overview of the changes that have occurred to the Education Act as presented in this proposal. And then we will provide, again, a brief overview of process and then move to the features of the Act. And we want to do that and finish that piece in about a half an hour because we want to really allow a good portion of the meeting for your comments and questions and concerns. That's what these town hall meetings are designed for and we really are looking for you to provide your thoughts on... Sorry, just one second. Your thoughts on what is before you for your consideration. And then shortly before 7.30, we'll have concluding remarks and then wind up at 7.30. So that's our proposed schedule for this evening. And the purpose of these meetings is to really describe and review the enhancement of the Education Act from 2005. So your Education Act, the bulk of the Education Act was developed in 2004-2005. So we're approaching almost 20 years, 18 years since that Act and a lot happens in education over that period of time. So it is time for a renewal of the Act and we are absolutely delighted to be involved. We're going to discuss with you the core features of the draft Education Act and regulations. We want to listen to your priorities and hopes for the draft Education Act and regulations. We're going to record your questions and comments and we will address the topics and issues raised in these meetings as part of our validation process and finalization of the proposed what is actually called a bill because it goes to Parliament, the draft Education Bill and regulations. So that's why we're having these. It's very much focused on you and your feedback and we're so pleased with the turnout this evening and are looking forward to an excellent conversation. Excuse me. Excuse me. In order that we might have allow everyone lots of opportunity to speak, we do have some ground rules that we would like to share with you. First of all, we want to reinforce that your questions and comments are most welcome. That's what we're here for. That's what we're looking for in these town hall sessions and so we want and are seeking your active participation. We're chairing the meeting as you know. I will be doing much of the facilitating this evening in terms of discussing the Education Act. Dr. Williams is going to keep me on the straight and narrow path. I'm making sure I don't veer off anywhere and that I keep things accurate and complete and she will also because she's so very knowledgeable and has in fact written a great deal of what you see before you will also respond to questions and comments that you raise. We will try our best to start and end promptly. We will also raise your hand if you would like to speak. So whatever way you're most comfortable with is totally fine with us. If you would like to raise your hand and speak on your toolbar, for those of you not so familiar with Zoom, on your toolbar you will see a sort of a dot section. If you press on that, there's a little hand there that you can just press on and raise your hand. So please, whichever way you're most comfortable we just want to hear from you. We're asking that when you, when either Monica and I, Dr. Williams or I acknowledges you, please state your name and share your comment or question in about three minutes so that we allow everyone to speak. And if there's anything that we've learned about the Education Act over our time working on it is that lots of people have perspectives about education in St. Lucia and some of people don't agree. So we fully expect that there will be comments for which people don't have full agreement and we appreciate that. There are some that we wouldn't agree with as well but we're very respectful of each other in terms of sharing information. We welcome conflicting opinions and we're really looking for a rich and respectful exchange this evening. So just briefly to give you a sense of where we've been in February of 2022 the St. Lucia Department of Education contracted Mind Bloom Consulting in conjunction with St. Francis Xavier University to partner with St. Lucia Educators in the review and enhancement of the Education Act. So in essence in our role as consultants for you, we've been a little bit like a part of the motor that keeps things moving and ensures that the process is advancing and we've had incredible support from Mrs. Edith Emanuel who's been from the Equip Office who has been supporting this as well. So in this case we have two motors Mrs. Emanuel and our team and together we have worked to engage persons in St. Lucia to discuss desired enhancements to the Education Act. And I was conscious as your consultants that this is your act, not our act and we contribute and make recommendations to try and make it the best possible act to support education in St. Lucia. The review was undertaken because the existing Education Act is from 2005 as I mentioned earlier and the department wants to ensure that the Education Act meets the needs of a modern education system so we all know that education is changing rapidly and it's important that the Education Act which is the constitution or the foundation and the legal framework for education in the country also changes and is modernized to ensure that it supports the type of education that you want. From February 2022 up to the present time there have been extensive stakeholder consultations and research and the research has involved looking at Education Acts from the region internationally looking at best practices in governance and leadership and also talking and receiving written submissions from persons in St. Lucia and after about a year of that we constructed the first iteration of the Proposed Education Act and regulations and those were ready in March 2023 so earlier this year and for the last eight or so months we have been receiving responses so once people got a chance to see what we were thinking about and recommending based on the consultations then the floodgates opened and we received a significant amount of feedback and as you see from the slide more than 700 suggestions were received we reviewed every one of those suggestions and we determined how those suggestions would be, would or would not be incorporated into the revised Education Act and regulations keeping in mind that some of those suggestions were in conflict with each other so we've received significant impact in input and what you see before you tonight is the result of that and now we have this opportunity for these Town Hall meetings to describe for you the Education Act to provide you with the opportunity to access the revised Act and regulations the proposed revised Act and regulations which are available on the Ministry of Education website and also on the website and I believe that the link will be provided in the chat and provide an opportunity for you to contribute to the validation of the draft Education Act and regulations that will eventually be advanced through Parliament so what has changed and what is it that we have determined would be important to include in a new Education Act so first of all the new Education Act has a real student-centered vision starting from what they call the long definition of the long title of the Act which says that that education is child-centered it has holistic it's a holistic approach to education and it's based on international best practice so actually moving the Education Act more towards focusing on the learner and less and away from focusing on the structure and the buildings and those sorts of things and that transcends through all of the Act we've endeavored to wherever we're writing or enhancing to make sure that the focus of those enhancements are the learner experience and the learner also in the Education Act there's a section that is called interpretation and we added a significant number of definitions to that interpretation section and updated the language some of the definitions were outdated and others were just not there so things like alternative education online and blended education psychosocial support special education needs inclusive education there were many definitions that did not appear in the 2005 Act that those with whom we came in contact felt would be very important to include in the new interpretation section so that's been significantly expanded to try and capture the elements of education as they exist today and as I mentioned a focus on holistic education that supports student learning and well-being so the focus is moved from so much of learning and repeating and memorization to a holistic approach where students are learning both are learning content skills and values so that they actually can apply what they've learned in their real-life situations so many of you would have heard about knowledge skills and values that's what we have endeavored to incorporate here in describing education and also describing the national curriculum that supports education the proposed revisions also refer to universal access to education that means persons can access education it's a right to access education that education that mandatory education should be free from tuition and that all those should be eligible to participate and protected from discrimination so that could be discrimination based on race, religion, gender everyone should be able to participate in education also an addition which was extensively advocated for from numerous stakeholders is a new council on special needs education and inclusive education to ensure that every student has the opportunity to succeed and that the education system supports each student and we're quite excited about the possibility of this council and what it would bring in terms of guidance in education and inclusive practice within St. Lucia another new addition is a proposed national code of conduct those of you gathered tonight will be aware that most schools have codes of conduct it's difficult because they are structured at the school level for consistency across the country so what we have done is suggested a national code of conduct that supports education school leaders and teachers and school staff in a consistent approach to positive student behavior so to create a community within schools where action is considered to be of a positive nature so to describe positive behavior and what it looks like and have the community agree that this is positive behavior and then provide the community standards and guidelines for what is misbehavior and how to respond to that misbehavior and when misbehavior occurs to give options for responses that for them are in some cases very educational in nature so they might be counseling they might be some kind of mediation to share restorative justice and not while there's still opportunities for what we would consider to be more punitive approaches we are also looking at educators providing constructive things so that because schools are places of education so we want the responses to misbehavior to also be that of education whenever possible the other thing that the national code of conduct does is provide principles and teachers with greater authority when misbehavior occurs and I'll speak to that in a moment also the new compulsory age for school is proposed to be 3 to 17 years old of age so 3 to open it up to early childhood education and then 17 on the other end previously or currently the compulsory age is 5 to 15 and again recommendations from numbers of stakeholders indicated that 15 was young and that 5 was too old and so we recommended an expansion the proposed education act also provides clear authority for educators to discipline students and protect safety and security and this is what I was referring to before we heard from school leaders that they didn't always feel accessible or know the extent to which they could intercede with students when they felt that those students were threatening the safety and security of others in school so now we've recommended the expansion of the authority for principals, vice principals and teachers to discipline students and protect safety and security and that also includes a process for search and seizure so if it is believed that a student has something that would harm others for example a weapon or drugs then it provides the educators with the right to search the students or search their lockers and sees what is there so that it can be dealt with accordingly now we know that educators need also the safety and security of the police but sometimes it is not the police cannot respond on a timely basis when safety and security is threatened and based on the feedback that we received we felt that it was very very important to empower educators and make them feel more comfortable in managing the school environment and in addition to that there are other options new types of education have been added including alternative education which is very important because in terms of the student centered approach to education that the act is supporting we want to make sure that all students have a pathway to achieve success and that pathway may not be what we would consider to be a technical or a artistic or a sports supported pathway but we want them to be able to achieve the outcomes that we're hoping for an education using the path that is of greatest interest to them and the one that will permit them to be most successful we've also included blended education obviously that has become very important since the pandemic and we recognize that that has to be included in an education act in order to facilitate not just responses during pandemics or perhaps disasters but to enable education to occur in the most effective way based on the good pedagogy at the time that it's being practiced so the education act obviously the new education act will last for a long time and we're trying to anticipate the type of teaching and learning that will occur in the future and ensure that the education act can support it there's clearly defined rights, duties, powers and responsibilities for those in the education system and there are now duties and responsibilities with regard to planning for disasters planning for school response in times of situations where school cannot be continued in the normal classroom environment and those rights, duties, powers and responsibilities don't just apply to educators but we've included learners and students, learners and parents and families and their responsibilities to ensure that every learner has the opportunity to succeed so these are significant changes that we have proposed to move the education act forward and we are still open to changes that's why we're having these town hall meetings but we wanted to highlight for you some of those changes that have occurred over the last two years so in terms of the act itself and what the proposed act looks like I mentioned that it starts with a preliminary section and that is where the long title that contains the vision or the foundational statement about education is presented and then there are the interpretation of the definitions and an expanded purpose for the act so we also added sections in the purpose to include key principles such as high quality education, holistic universal access and the importance of lifelong learning so those are now included in the purpose in the preliminary section in part one is the administration of the education so right off the bat if you will at the start the act describes the duties and powers of the minister of the permanent secretary of the chief education officer and of education officers and education advisory boards education officers are there for the first time because of the integral role that they play and the section clarifies duties and powers in a consistent format so that you as readers of the act should be able to understand very easily what is expected of those who lead the system and included in the minister's power in addition is to provide cycle social support which is also defined in the act but this cycle social also reiterates the importance of holistic education and the need for learners to have psycho social support as part of their education experience part two describes the stages of education and the types of schools and so it describes in this section early childhood education has been added and the types of education include adult education, alternative education blended education, continuing and distance education inclusive education, special needs education, online and technical and vocational education and really reflect the flexibility that we believe is necessary in a modern education system and as I mentioned previously several of those several of those terms obviously emerged in importance out of the pandemic and this section also includes an expanded section on home schooling we heard extensively that there needed to be greater guidance in terms of home schooling and in terms of inspections of what is happening in home schooling and so that section has been expanded and we have also added special needs education inclusive education part three has the rights and responsibilities of students and parents so obviously there is a right for universal access to education for free tuition the right to an appropriate education there is also students have an accountability to do their part as they receive this gift of education and so there are responsibilities of students to attend school and also rights and duties of parents to ensure that their sons and daughters attend school part four is admission, attendance and records this talks about the compulsory school age it talks about admission to schools zoning of schools, how student transfers occur student attendance and an expanded role for student attendance officer we know that attendance is an issue not just in St. Lucia but worldwide and we wanted to ensure that the function of the school attendance officer was entrenched and supported in the Education Act and this also talks about the school records part five describes the national curriculum and the instruction and assessment of students so the national curriculum is proposed to be now more inclusive and includes statements about balanced assessment which moves a focus away from or encourages a focus away from solely relying on end of period tests and of year tests to assess students and to a more balanced assessment of students that occurs over the year through such things as diagnostic and formative assessment in conjunction with summative assessment it also promotes the education it's encouraged that the curriculum also promote the diverse peoples, cultures, histories and languages of St. Lucia so again making sure that the curriculum is of St. Lucia and for St. Lucia and as much as possible it describes the core subjects and and is much expanded one of the things I should note is that the national curriculum in part five right now does not make reference to the curriculum for early childhood and we know that pre-kindergarten has been introduced in the country and early childhood education is provided for those younger than pre-kindergarten and so it is our intention following these town hall meetings to visit that to ensure that there's that early childhood is included or there's a national curriculum referenced early childhood part six talks about the management of schools and it talks about boards of management the technical and vocational education and training council which was already there in trenches student councils and a national student council includes parent teacher and community associations so there has been a another group including educators from St. Lucia who have worked on the best structure for parent and community involvement in schooling and they have recommended that the traditional parent teacher associations be expanded to include parent teacher and community associations because as one participant in these town hall sessions said it takes a community to raise a child and so there are many people in the community who can be very supportive and play integral roles in education so we have included in the act these parent teacher community associations part seven refers to the national code of conduct that I have spoken about earlier and school rules and disciplines and so it talks about positive approach to student behavior and creating positive school environments it talks about disciplinary responses to student misbehavior including suspensions which could be in school suspensions I mentioned search and seizure and there is also a right to appeal described in this section section eight talks about the rights and duties of educators so the duties of principals, vice principals teachers and for the first time school guidance counselors again we know the importance of guidance counselors in the support of education and their role has now been articulated in the act to recognize this part nine is the St. Lucia Island scholarship it says scholarship singular but it really applies to however many scholarships cabinet deems to award in a particular year and so it relates to the value of the scholarship how to qualify for scholarship how the conditions under which a scholarship would be forfeited bonding of scholarship recipients and the awarding of grants and bursaries part ten provides an important avenue for parents and others to challenge education decisions so it clearly outlines how appeals will occur and sets out the process for those appeals and there's a miscellaneous section in the act that ensures that there's an annual report on the performance of the education system every year it also has a section on contagious disease on closures of schools loitering on school premises and then references the regulations and repeal so that is just a very quick overview of the act Dr. Williams is there anything that you would like to add no thank you Paula that's great thank you thank you so now it's your turn so we would very much like to entertain any questions comments that you would have any inputs that you would like to share about the proposed education act and the floor is open for anyone please don't hesitate to put a comment in the chat or to raise your hand and you will be acknowledged so that you can articulate a point that you would like to make Paul I think we had a hand up from Melissa Griffith okay please go ahead Melissa you're muted can you turn on your mic hi good night to everyone hello good evening I am about four years old well he hold his pencil like this to write but he just show him how to hold a pencil properly but to talk to him is very troublesome but more you talk to him he will still do the same thing over and over again but when you talk to him once he will keep on doing the same thing over and over like if that teacher tell him not to do that not to do this he still do it but I never bring him to the to the church in for a not to show him how to talk he should and he's bringing yes you're breaking up a little bit but your child is in an early childhood center now attending an early childhood center now no but my baby used to go to La Clare that's just by by Vibhuti there by the Vibhuti school so I think the intention with the education yes Paula may I come in here yes please go ahead we're actually discussing the education act but if you could probably speak to are you in district 4 is your child going to school in district 4 or in district 4 okay so you can speak to the principal have you spoken to the principal she told me about that she told me they have to come to the school okay so we can discuss that maybe you can come to the district office on the goodlands road and we can see how we can assist you but we really want to okay we want to look at the education act tonight but we can give you some assistance if you come to the district 4 education office on the goodlands road thank you for raising that and Damien Renee I think you have a question or a comment and the regulations really are a bit of the how to guide and St. Lucia drafted regulations to accompany the 2005 act but they were never advanced and what we found as part of our review is that educators had developed policies and practices but they weren't drawn together into this guide to using the act so again we would encourage you to look at these regulations which will be new and to consider how they will help guide education moving forward so again the regulations are more detailed obviously than the act and provide greater guidance to the interpretation and implementation of the act the regulations start with the preliminary section which ties the regulations to the act because of course the two have to relate and then in the administration of schools and the regulation this is where the school years described the school day and school calendar the school vacations that are acceptable in St. Lucia how school timetables would be established school admissions school registers when textbooks would be selected and reviewed student assessments again more detail around balanced assessment and information on zoning so you can see whereas the administration of schools in the act talked about those who were responsible for the administration and how it's structured this actually provides detail on when education occurs how it occurs what resources are available and those sorts of things part two is the national curriculum and the national curriculum also is referenced to a schedule in the regulations that describes the national curriculum and this is where the wording the specific wording around honoring the languages of St. Lucia appears and it includes an alignment with the new national qualifications framework and describes the primary and secondary curriculum and I think we have a hand up if you'd like to go ahead please go ahead yes hello good evening once again I would like to find out what exactly informed changes to the section of the act dealing with the rights and responsibilities of teachers I notice there have been significant changes in that section would you mind explaining what informed these changes a lot first of all stakeholder feedback was key and also looking at other rights and responsibilities from other acts and the current research on teacher responsibilities Monica would you like to add to that in terms of the rights and duties of teachers we've also had ongoing consultations with different groups throughout this work and one of the groups that we've consulted with on several occasions is the St Lucia teachers association so we've taken input from stakeholders and as Paula said research and review of other legislation other education acts and through all of that process drafted the rights of educators and the duties of teachers to what extent was there consultation of the body of teachers I understand you went through the teachers association but was there engagement with the schools of teachers at the bottom at the ground level so we actually we've had quite a bit of interaction with the St Lucia teachers union the St Lucia teachers union actually worked to try and arrange meetings throughout the country and then invited rather than doing that invited us to attend a conference we've also had town hall session or not town hall sessions but consultation sessions that where teachers and schools were invited and we've worked closely with the district education officers in providing opportunities for teachers to provide feedback in terms of what's been circulated so we have as best as possible through our own devices and with tremendous support from the ministry try to reach out to teachers as best as possible and these town halls have also been designed to provide teachers with input and we are we have nine town hall sessions this is the fifth and we will have them in the evenings all next week as well okay I may point to one specific item a few specific items that have been changed one of those from the previous act says teachers have a right to be protected as far as reasonably possible from molestation abuse assault and battery in the process of carrying out assigned professional duties whether within or outside the school if the teacher is engaged in authorized activities I don't really understand why such an item would be removed from the act well thank you for sharing that and I'm keeping some notes as is Paula and to your point I see in the chat box several other people have asked about teachers losing their children in the process of being treated fairly and so we're making notes we're recording everything so we will follow up on that because several people have raised that as well so we will certainly check into that further and this is why the town halls are so important so that we can have these topics raised and we can do further follow up and obviously what we would have to do is look at that section in great detail but if it was if it is covered in some other way that might be the reason but again as Dr. Williams said we will look at it and we thank you for raising it yes just one more thing I'm not sure that it has been covered in this President's iteration of the act however how soon is it proposed that this act be implemented and how much provision for further consultation with teachers with the body of teachers well we obviously we want to receive feedback so we are receiving we will continue to receive feedback throughout this month so there are still lots of time to provide feedback the we will then based on the feedback we will do another iteration of the proposed act and regulations so that's why these sessions are so important and to provide you with the opportunity to ask these questions obviously the act has to proceed through an approval process in Parliament so I can't tell you the timeline but and I'm sure it would not advance until those in the Ministry felt that it was ready so it is it's going to be some time before it goes through the Attorney General's office goes to Cabinet and goes to Parliament and all through those processes it is likely to undergo further refinement as it proceeds okay I'd just like to state that I think if we just take a top down approach where these ideas are just imposed on teachers it may not all go well for our students and I think it's very essential that teachers are central to whatever act involves out of this discussion so it's very important that we are engaged not just the teachers association but the teachers need to get the opportunity to discuss the act and to air their concerns and priorities we wouldn't agree with you more and we are just disappointed actually that we've been in this process for two years and now we're hearing that teachers feel that they haven't been involved in the process so we hear you loud and clear we agree with you that it's very important for teachers to be involved and if you can suggest mechanisms for ensuring that happens I know that between our group as a consultants and the ministry that we do definitely want to hear the voices of teachers we have tried very hard to make this act the proposed act and the regulations to be supportive of teachers in the work that they do thus the reason for the proposed national code of conduct for the regulations that support teachers in their work so based on the information that we've received today we have tried to be as responsive as possible and we do appreciate receiving and want to receive all inputs from teachers and we'll look forward to a mechanism to ensure that that happens we would encourage anyone who is with us this evening to encourage teachers to come to the next four any of the next four town hall meetings that are scheduled starting Monday evening at six o'clock all of them run from six to seven thirty next week from Monday through Thursday there is as you can tell an opportunity to share your opinions and your reflections and we would also encourage you to go to the ministry website or to the equip website and look at the proposed draft act and regulations thank you for raising it and Paula if I could update from the chat box again there are comments expressing the importance of speaking with teachers and Miss Emanuel has provided the clarification that the district town halls underway are designed to engage teachers, principals, parents and community members in this review process so as you pointed out they're warmly welcome to participate we encourage that we also have a couple more questions sure one of the some comments and questions one comment is I hope they do a better review on assessment zoning because every year there's a disadvantage grade so there are a couple more questions on the assessment of zoning provisions in the regulations just a comment there on the importance of assessment of zoning and a question does the early childhood curriculum change to will the early childhood curriculum change to include the children writing their names that degree of detail that's left to the educators what is intended in terms of describing the early childhood curriculum is a general statement about and again we have we haven't even discussed among ourselves what we might recommend in that regard but it would include what we would call age appropriate pedagogy particularly when you're thinking about children who are three years old entering early childhood education so we would look to the research on appropriate education for those three to five we would also look to what's currently happening in terms of instruction and we understand that there's some high scope curriculum that is actually a respected curriculum being used to support some of the early childhood education so that is how that is what the act would say and then from that the details of the actually that would be likely more the detail that would be described in the regulations and then that would be developed into programs by professional educators for children anything else there Monica? There was a really nice comment about the expanded compulsory school age that I've lost but the gist of it was that the person was really glad to see the expanded compulsory school age from three to 17 years but they also expressed the desire that the resources will be put in place to meet the needs of that expanded compulsory school age that the increased number of students and this person was speaking as a special education teacher in particular and very aware of student needs and the requirements for resources. Thank you for that comment. I'll just go on quickly with the overview of the draft regulations part three refers to the management of schools and it talks about the management of public schools, assisted schools and home schooling again this is expanded from what was previously what appears in the 2005 well it wouldn't have appeared because there are no regulations but so it provides greater detail about home schooling. It also outlines what happens during school visits and inspections and schedule seven that is associated with part three describes actually serves as a guide basically about what actually occurs during visits and inspections so again detail related to what appears in the act with regard to school visits and inspections. Part four talks about councils and associations so this is greater detail on student council national student council parent teacher community associations the national council of parent teacher community associations so actually describing those structures in more detail and part five refers specifically to the proposed national code of conduct and there's a detailed schedule associated with that part that includes the purpose of the code of conduct the guiding principles the standards of behavior standard for appropriate rest so those are all the positive elements what is it that we do to create a respectful learning environment and then it goes on to describe categories of misbehavior acceptable and unacceptable responses to misbehavior and describes the roles and responsibilities the roles of students the roles of teachers and school leaders in in maintaining a positive school environment part six talks about disciplinary complaints how they're heard and the responses and the results so it actually describes that process in detail and then part seven describes the appeal process how it go what the process of appeal is when the hearing occurs and and how the decisions are communicated and then there are at the end of the regulations there are miscellaneous there's a miscellaneous the schedules and forms so that's where schedule five seven and eight appear that's where applications appear and any other schedules that the ministry wants to make sure are included in the regulations so that that is what has been proposed as the regulations and I've tried to describe for you the detail with which they actually add some detail around the structure of the Education Act to give teachers and school leaders and those and leaders in the ministry guidance with as they go about their work in education and interpret the proposed Education Act so any questions comments about the draft regulations anything that you would like to discuss we these questions and comments have been absolutely excellent and informative and we would encourage you to either raise your hand or put a comment in the box and we will respond there are no no comments or questions right now in the chat box Paula but I'm keeping an eye on that so we would like you to either use the chat or raise your hand and share what you think the top three priorities that should be addressed in the draft Education Act and regulations so what do you think is most important in a revised Education Act and regulations and what do you hope will come out of this draft act and regulations so we obviously are committed to making the Education Act for St. Lucia as modern and reflective of the values of St. Lucia as possible but clearly we're not St. Lucia so we want you to help shape it as I mentioned at the outset it is your Education Act so what do you hope will come out of this to enable you to better deliver on your role in education people a chance to either put comments in the chat or to raise your hand okay so please don't hesitate to add that so I have alluded oh go ahead Mr. Rene Mr. Rene are you on mute just while we're waiting we have a comment in the chat box a couple of comments now Paula I'm hoping that the missing rights of teachers will be reinstated that's one and a policy on the provision of resources for schools that's another go ahead Mr. Rene yes I was saying I know many teachers not like the idea of comparing students to a product but I think we can use that you know that category you know product because what we actually we have to ask ourselves what is it we intend to produce before we can decide what it is you know our priorities are what is it that we are trying to produce what sort of student what is the ideal solution student of solution person we must have this vision before we can decide what exactly is our priority but I have my own ideas about what the ideal solution student is and I think I don't have a list of three but I think we need people who have a sense of self and an idea a strong sense of identity I think that is one of the things that is very important in the ideal solution student I think we need an education that reflects our values but not only our values but also our aspirations as a people and our aspirations are unique and they would not be identical to those of the US or Europe or anywhere else we have unique aspirations as a people and I think it's imperative that we actually meditate and decide what our aspirations are as a people where do we want this solution in the next 20 years and it is this sort of vision that will shape any policy to determine what sort of student we want to create what sort of vision, this idea of what it is we are expecting or we intend to create in the students. Thank you. That's very thoughtful. Thank you and we have some more comments in the chat box Paula other priorities safety and security, inclusivity and diversity in assessments inclusivity and diversity in assessments, school security and policy on the general upkeep and maintenance of schools. Also adequate resourcing for special education schools, especially specialists and someone wrote in effective disciplinary actions for students and rights of students. Another priority to get the zoning right by percentage and living close by and another priority is the rights of teachers. Okay. So those are all excellent suggestions. That's excellent. Thank you. Thank you very much for your inputs. In terms of next steps so the as I love I just saw the comment teachers need to be appreciated yearly and quarterly I would add daily so yes teachers have difficult jobs and increasingly difficult jobs in a complex society and we do need to absolutely make sure that they are appreciated and supported in their work. The next steps the questions and comments raised this evening and at each town hall meeting are being recorded you know that this meeting has been recorded and analyzed to identify the main topics and issues that have been raised by those attending and these topics and issues will be addressed in a in another iteration of the proposed Education Act and regulations and then we will submit as your consultants that will complete our role in the development of the proposed Education Act and regulations but there are persons in St. Lucia who will ensure that it continues to move through the process of approval and eventually approval by Parliament. So these town halls meetings are very very important to us to ensure that the draft Education Act and regulations reflect what you hope for as St. Lucia's in the Education Act and I think the points that have been raised this evening are very important and we certainly will duly consider them as we look at further amendments to the proposed Act and regulations. Anything else on Monica in the chat that you see before we move to closing comments? Another priority is the policy on how emergencies are responded to by supporting units for example the Ministry of Health some more priorities a safe learning environment for all. Number two alternative education that prepares students for the 21st century because their future jobs haven't been created yet. Number three is the system that represents St. Lucia not colonialism. Exactly. Thank you very much and I would like to thank you also very much for attending this evening. It was we really enjoy receiving these comments and having discussion about the discussion and we appreciate your taking the time from your evening to participate this evening and for your active participation in the discussion. Dr. Williams would you like to say anything by way of closing before I turn it back over to Mrs. George Arlen? Yes, thank you very much Paula. I'd like to echo your comments. This has been an excellent informative conversation. We really appreciate your participation and contributions this evening and we wish you a very pleasant rest of your evening. Thank you. Mrs. Arlen? Thank you Mrs. McKinnon. Thank you Mrs. Williams for very interactive presentation. Let me also thank Miss Edith from Equip. Also Mr. Isambard Flavian who opened the session with prayers. I wish to also express gratitude to the principals who are here, the parents, the teachers and the members of the community who are at the town halls, the various town halls. So we thank you for your contributions, your questions, your comments, your suggestions. We hope that this presentation was edifying. We hope you get a better understanding of the new aspects of the Education Act and a general overview of the draft. We encourage you to follow the link and to do some further revision and hopefully you will be able to join in at another town hall meeting for more clarification. So thank you for taking time out of your evening where you could be relaxing, watching news of your family, but you saw the importance and the significance of being here tonight and we really, really appreciate this. Thank you everyone and have a good night. Thank you for those of you in Centre's safe journey home. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. Good night. Good night.