 In the interest of time, Mr. Sipal, we would like to comment. It's anyone else who would join us. So over to you, Mr. Sipal. Thank you, Madam Consultant. Just want to double check that you're hearing me clearly. Yes, we are. I will work on my video shortly. But then thank you again. This afternoon it's very important consultation as we continue to get the views, the ideas, the feedback of our stakeholders with reference to our Education Act. We all know that the education system is very dynamic. It is not static. And then there is what you call now a social revolution that is taking place. And it finds itself now, putting that way, being operationalized in the education system. And then now we are the education system. We understand that education is also dynamic. It changes over time. Culture is changing. The dynamics of teaching is changing. Everything is changing. So therefore, with that, we understand now that even the book, let us put it that way, the Bible that guides the education system as time goes by, then we also have to make changes to it. And this is why we are here this afternoon to hear from you. We have had wonderful consultations with Mind Bloom, and then we will continue to have this consultation this afternoon. So it is not my turn to be the one to proceed with the consultation, but it is my turn to facilitate the consultant to have him to take over. So thank you once again for joining us this afternoon. We look forward to a very thoughtful, precise, concise, and thought-provoking discussion as we give feedback to our consultations in this review. So before we go any further, I will offer a word of prayer at this time as we allow the almighty to take charge of the proceedings. So shall we get ready to pray at this time? Those of us who sign ourselves in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we thank you this afternoon for your blessings. We thank you for a wonderful day. We thank you, dear Lord, for having called us, having chosen us to be in the education system, to be where you want us to be, dear Lord. You have placed us in situations where we can continue to impact the education progress, dear Lord. We pray at this time that as we deliver it on the continued consultation for the review of the Education Act, dear Lord, that your Holy Spirit will direct us. Your Holy Spirit will energize us, dear Lord. And we will not just simply think of the past or the present, but we will think of the future and the suggestions that we will make, the concerns that we will raise. It will be to the best interest of ensuring that we have a good generation in the future, dear Lord. We pray that you will bless the consultants, continue to give them the wisdom from on high. And as we deliberate on this matter this afternoon, may your name be glorified once again, I pray in Jesus' name. OK, thank you very much. And at this time, ladies and gentlemen, I will take no more of the time, but I will now introduce to you Dr. Monica Williams, our lead consultant, who will take over the post. Nazu, you can contribute. What time you make your contributions, how you make your contributions. And feel free, I was told that if in case we have somebody on the platform who would prefer to express their views in Creole, guess what? I am there. I'm very versed in Creole. I will be able to translate to the consultant this time. Miss Monica, over to you. Dr. Williams. Oh, you are muted, Monica. Thank you. Oh, sorry about that. Thank you very much, Mr. Sipal. And thank you for the warm welcome and the devotion to get our deliberations started this afternoon. We very much appreciate it. And we're looking forward to another excellent conversation about the draft St. Lucia Education Act and regulations and hearing from everyone present their views, their suggestions. We really appreciate you meeting with us and we appreciate your input. So we want to keep our presentation time to a minimum and our discussion time to a maximum. At this point, I would like to introduce my two colleagues on the town hall meeting this afternoon. This is Fortuna Anthony from St. Lucia. Mrs. Anthony, if you would like to make a word of greeting, please. Thank you very much, Dr. Williams. Fortuna Anthony, retired Chief Education Officer, but long, lifelong educator. It's a pleasure to have everyone here with us and looking forward to a very enriching and enlightening discourse this afternoon. Thank you ever so much, Dr. Williams. Thank you, Mrs. Anthony. And I'd like to call on Mrs. Paula Cook McKinnon, the principal of Mindblue to also say a few words of greeting this afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Monica. It is indeed my pleasure to be with you this afternoon. We have had such insightful discussions as we've prepared for today's town hall meeting and developed the second draft of the proposed Education Act and regulations that we will be discussing today. And I would just like to thank you all for your continued input into the process. We believe that with your input and thoughtful discussions, we will actually have a state-of-the-art Education Act and regulations for St. Lucian's to consider adopting to support the continued exciting developments in education that are occurring in the country. Thank you so much, Dr. Williams. Thank you very much. Next slide, please. As we get ready to have our discussion, I just want to point out to anyone who may not be familiar with it, that to raise your hand and offer a comment or question on the bottom of your screen among the icons, there's one entitled reactions. And if you click on that, there's an icon to raise your hand. You can do that at any time and we'll be happy to take your questions and comments. You can also put your comments in the chat box if you so desire. So we have multiple ways to participate. Our schedule, we're hosting mostly evening sessions. So you can see here, it's a 90-minute schedule. We start off with the welcome to motion and introductions that we've just had. I'm going to go over the ground rules and the purpose for the meeting shortly. I'm going to provide you with a brief description of the review of the Education Act that's been conducted to date over a span of almost two years now. We'll also provide an overview and discussion of the core features of the Draft Education Act and regulations, emphasizing what's new, what's being proposed, that's an enhancement and that's different in this latest draft. We want to hear about your priorities and hopes for the Draft Education Act and regulations. And then about five minutes before we wrap up, we'll have concluding remarks and a thank you. And after the 90 minutes has passed, we'll have adjournment. So we're trying to stick with this schedule as closely as we can. We've been doing pretty well. And so we have an hour and a half with you to discuss this latest draft of the Education Act and regulations. Next slide, please, Paula. So what is the purpose of the town hall meetings? Well, to describe the review and enhancement of the Education Act 2005, that's the existing legislation that as Mr. C. Powell pointed out, really acts as the Bible for the education system in St. Lucia. It provides the legal framework for the operation of schools and for all of the different personnel who work within the schools. It provides guidance for them as well. We're also gonna discuss the core features as I mentioned a moment ago, the proposed enhancements. And listen to your priorities and hopes for the Draft Education Act and regulations. This meeting is being recorded, so we are recording your questions and comments. And we are going to address the topics and issues that you raise in the validation and finalization of the Draft Education Act and regulations. And that is really key. We're working toward the timely preparation of a final draft of the Education Act and regulations to submit to the government for consideration. And your input is crucial in that finalization process. Next slide, please. So here are our meeting ground rules. Again, we wanna emphasize we wanna hear from you and your questions and comments are welcomed. I will be chairing the session this afternoon along with my colleagues, Mrs. Anthony and Mrs. Cook McKinnon. We are aiming for prompt start and end times. And as I pointed out, comments may be placed in the chat box. Mrs. McKinnon and Mrs. Anthony will be keeping an eye on the chat box and flagging any questions that you wanna pose. To speak during the meeting, please use the icon to raise your hand and one acknowledge, please state your name and share your question or comment. And we're asking that you do that in three minutes or less so that as many people as possible can have the chance to speak during the meeting. We have been in ongoing consultations for almost two years now. We've had tremendous participation and we appreciate and respect all questions and comments and ask that you do the same. If there's one thing that we've learned along the way on this review of the Education Act, it's that St. Lucian's feel very passionate about it and they have many different opinions and priorities and perspectives on the Education Act and the regulations. So we ask that everyone listen carefully to all the different opinions that are expressed and we will do the same and we'll be listening very closely for sure. Next slide please. So a brief description of the review of the Education Act. Beginning in February, 2022, the St. Lucia Department of Education contracted with Mind Bloom Consulting and St. Francis Abbey University to partner with St. Lucia educators in the review and enhancement of the Education Act. I wanna emphasize the word their partner. This is a partnership, it's a collaboration and we've been working together very closely in this important work. The review was undertaken because the existing Education Act is from 2005 and the department wants to ensure that the act meets the needs of a modern education system now and in the future. And as Mr. C. Powell pointed out in his opening remarks, we're in the midst of a tremendous amount of change, including the massive changes that occurred as a result of the pandemic in society and in education. And so there is a need to review the existing act. From February, 2022 up to the present time, we've held extensive stakeholder consultations with people across the island and a great deal of research has been completed. Just to give you a couple of examples with regard to the research, we've had a review of Education Acts in the Caribbean region. We've looked at developments in education legislation in other parts of the world. We've reviewed codes of conduct for student behavior in the region and around the world. And we've been looking at regulations and how they're formulated within the Caribbean countries and elsewhere. And the research and the consultations are continuous. They have been ongoing since the outset. Based on the findings of the consultations and research, a first draft of the Education Act and regulations was prepared in March of 2023. So we took a year to listen carefully to the input of St. Lucians and to look at the research and the latest trends regionally and internationally and prepared a first draft for feedback. And we had a tremendous response to that first draft. In fact, we received more than 700 suggestions about that draft. We reviewed and acted on all of those suggestions. We took them all into consideration. Some of them were conflicting, which is not surprising, but we looked at them, compared them with the research, compared them with best practices from around the world to create the latest draft of the Education Act and regulations that we're discussing here today. So this latest draft was just finalized within the last couple of weeks. It's hot off the press and we're looking forward to your input on it. Next slide, please. We can go ahead to the next slide. So what's new? What's being proposed that's different from what currently exists in the Education Act 2005? Here are some of the highlights. The proposed Education Act begins with a new student-centered vision for education in St. Lucia. It very much emphasizes holistic education. So the mental and physical wellbeing of children, their academic achievement, their learning, their development and growth. It's that whole child approach that's emphasized in the vision and that carries on throughout the Act. When we look at areas such as the national curriculum, that holistic vision is continued. We're also in the vision, which is contained in the long title of the Act, promoting a modern inclusive curriculum that goes beyond simply learning information and repeating it on examinations to developing values and skills and knowledge that students learn how to apply. So that they're well-prepared citizens and they are prepared for success in school and life and contribute to St. Lucia Society. We have done a tremendous amount of work on the definitions and language in the Education Act. We had many, many requests to have additional terms added in to the definitions. And we also had many St. Lucia's, especially in our first round of consultations, tell us that the current language, some of it was outdated. Some of it referred to programs and curricula, for example, that are no longer offered and that there was a need to update language in certain areas. For example, special needs education was one area that was flagged. We've responded to all those requests and you will see a very detailed expanded the interpretation section in the Act with definitions and new types of education that have been emerging in the last few years. As I mentioned, the focus on holistic education goes from the vision throughout the entire Act in all aspects. We also have in this proposed draft and this draft for your consideration, the additions of universal access to education so that all children can access education free tuition so that children can access education without payment being required of their parents and protection from discrimination so that children cannot be excluded from school on the basis of their gender, their ethnic background, their language, their culture, their ability. So these are all new additions in the proposed draft. We've also added a new council on special needs education and inclusive education that will provide guidance in the provision of programming and services for students who have learning challenges, for students who are gifted, for students who have a wide range of abilities and disabilities. We have established this council to provide leadership in this area because again, special needs education was identified as an area for potential enhancement by many of our respondents. We've also included in the draft Act and in the regulations, a new national code of conduct which would be a first for St. Lucia. The national code includes standards for behavior and appropriate dress. It promotes positive behavior and the teaching and reinforcement of positive behavior and various responses to student misbehavior. Again, with the aim of providing support and emphasizing prevention as much as possible. While still recognizing that misbehavior occurs and there have to be clear consequences for that which we have spelled out in detail in the national code. And this code would apply to all schools because one of the things we heard from our respondents was that each school has school rules but they're different around behavior. So we're trying to provide a common standard in response to those requests. Also in the draft Act, there is an expanded school age compulsory school age. It was five to 15 years. It's been increased to three to 17 years including early childhood education for ages three to five. So that's another major enhancement. We've heard from many St. Lucia's that they have concerns about student behavior and safety and security in schools. We heard from many educators that they didn't feel they had clear authority to address issues of safety and security. And we've worked to really provide them with that clear authority and to give them the ability to respond to serious concerns in the area of safety and security. For example, in the draft Education Act there is now a provision for search and seizure whereby principals or teachers if they feel that a student has, for example, a weapon on their person or they're threatening harm to themselves or others they can intervene, search for the weapon or illegal drugs, whatever the case may be, seize them and immediately act when that threat is posed. We've added many new types of education to the Act. Including alternative online and blended education. Online and blended education certainly came to the fore during the pandemic when education systems around the world switched to virtual learning. Alternative education is a very important addition as well in that more and more we're recognizing that secondary students are not all well suited to an academic pathway to school completion and they require different pathways where they can learn practical skills, prepare for different occupations, have hands-on project-based learning and so we've made provision for that in the new draft Act. And throughout the Act in response to many requests we've provided clearly defined rights, duties, powers and responsibilities of many participants in the education system. Everyone from the Minister of Education to students and parents, teachers, principals and many others. So these are the highlights of what's being proposed as enhancements to the Act. Next slide, please. So now the next two slides, this one and the next one I'm just gonna go over the parts of the Act briefly and then we're gonna go right into discussion. So in terms of the parts of the draft Act, the preliminary section deals with interpretation, the definitions that I mentioned earlier and the purpose of the Act. Part one deals with the administration of the education system by the ministry and in this section we've spelled out the duties and powers of the minister, permanent secretary and so forth. Part two deals with different stages of education and types of schools and we've addressed public schools, denominational, assisted, private schools. We also had many requests to provide more structure around homeschooling and we've done that. So we've put in more detail around homeschooling and as I mentioned earlier, also around special needs education and inclusive education. Part three deals with the rights and responsibilities of students and parents. They are spelled out. And part four with the admission, attendance and records. So as mentioned earlier, the compulsory school age has expanded and in this section, we also provide a description of the process for student transfers and we have recognized that there have been ongoing issues with student attendance in the wake of the pandemic in St. Lucia as in many other places around the world. And we've responded to requests to provide greater supports for student attendance and also clarity around the role of the student attendance officer to address truancy and support student attendance. Part five is the national curriculum and the instruction and assessment of students. So we've described an inclusive national curriculum, the core subjects to be offered, key stages of assessment. We've also described balanced student assessment. So not a sole reliance on examinations as the primary form of assessment, but based on best practices from around the world, we're recommending an emphasis on diagnostic and formative assessment as well. Next slide, please, Paula. Part six is the management of schools where we describe the procedures, the mandate, the composition of boards of management, TVEC council, et cetera. And I want to point out in this section that we've made a change from parent teacher associations. We've expanded that to parent teacher community associations in recognition of the strong partnerships that exist between members of the community and their local schools. And we want to reinforce that. Part seven is the national code of conduct, school rules and discipline. So in this section, we describe the national code of conduct, the types of disciplinary responses that are made to student misbehavior, including in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, just as a couple of examples, behavioral supports is another one. I mentioned a little while ago about search and seizure, and also we've made provision for the right to a disciplinary response being appealed. Part eight is the rights and duties of educators. That includes principals, vice principals, teachers, and we have added school guidance counselors. They weren't previously included in this part of the act and they have been added. Part nine is the St. Lucia Island Scholarship, including all the provisions around the scholarship and we've done some editing there based on feedback as well. And part 10 describes the appeals process through the Education Appeals Tribunal. Part 11 is miscellaneous. It deals with many different topics, everything from contagious diseases to the closure of schools and vendors on school premises. So this section has many different topics that are addressed. Next slide, please, Paula. And we want to pause here and ask for any questions or comments or observations you would like to contribute about that quick walk through the draft Education Act and the core features. We'd really like to hear from you. So if you'd like to raise your hand or put a question in the chat box, that would be really appreciated. To see your hand up there, please go ahead. Yes, I wanted to find out whether the act addresses the development of students' councils and recognizing students' councils within the system. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Yes, it does. We have made provision for student councils in both the act and in the regulations as well as a national body for student councils. So we have recognized them because they are a very important part of school life. Angelina, please go ahead. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Senator Dr. Angela Apulius. I'm just representing the Office of the Leader of Opposition. And as a former teacher-trainer, of course, with background in teacher training, I paid careful attention to the core features of the new act. And I'm not sure if that is outlined anywhere else in the document, but I do not see any provisions being made to teacher-training. All of what you have presented has implications for teacher-training, effective teacher-training, in order for the teachers to deliver effective instruction and for the students' needs to be met in our, you know, burgeoning society, digital education landscape, we need to address teacher-training. So I'm not sure whether that is addressed anywhere else, but I didn't see any provisions in the core features that you outlined earlier. So can you please shed light on that, please? Thank you very much for the question. That is a really important point. In the rights of educators, one of the rights that's set forth in the draft is that they have access to professional development that they require, but you're also speaking to the broader issue of teacher-training, continuing education, et cetera. So we have made reference to continuing education in the act, in the definitions and in the body of the act. Teacher-training is an interesting question in that one of the things we've encountered in this work is that it's really important to align the Education Act and the regulations with other legislation in St. Lucia that is involved. So for example, with regard to student behavior and conduct and prohibition against use of alcohol, those kinds of things, we had to make sure we complied with the liquor control laws. The issue you're raising around teacher-training also has implications with regard to the Teaching Service Commission and the legislation that governs the operation of the Teaching Service Commission. So we have some crossover there, but what we're going to do is note that point and see what the possibilities are if we can make further reference to teacher-training in the act or if that falls more within the purview of the Teaching Service Commission legislation. So thank you for the question. We will follow up on that. We're noting the issues as we go along and that's an important question. But just to add to what you have said, I also want to find out whether there's going to be any kind of nexus between what happens in the entire education system and the initial teacher-training. What the St. Louis Community College would be offering in collaboration with the teacher-training or teacher-education department? Is there any kind of nexus, any kind of link, any kind of marriage between the two? We have had consultations with some post-secondary partners. And so we have had those discussions and we recognize that if the act goes ahead and it is adopted, which is another multi-step process, that there will be ramifications for teacher-training for sure. So we recognize that. I don't know. I'm going to ask my colleague, Mrs. McKinnon, if she'd like to comment further on that front. Thank you very much, Dr. Williams. Yes, the other piece that is actually in development right now is an act for Sir Arthur Lewis Community College that we understand is in the development process. And so we believe that under that process, teacher-education would be contained as a post-secondary program within Sir Arthur Lewis. So as you correctly say, there is a nexus and the nexus sort of exists between the new act for Sir Arthur Lewis, the Teaching Service Commission, and then the Education Act. And our understanding to date is that we, in terms of teacher preparation, the Teaching Service Commission actually appoints teachers and so they look for the qualifications. The Education Act speaks to continuing professional development and advancement of teachers within the profession. And then in terms of Sir Arthur Lewis, its purview would be to describe that type of professional development that would qualify teachers for engagement through the Teaching Service Commission. So there is a coming together, if you will, of three pieces. And we have worked very hard to try and ensure, as Dr. Williams has said, that there's alignment between legislation so that you don't have something in one act that really belongs or is already in an existing act. So you're quite right to Dr. Williams' point. However, we will certainly look to see if there's room for strengthening what we have already incorporated into the Education Act without infringing on existing or planned legislation. Thank you, Mrs. McKinnon. And, Alison, I see your hand up. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Williams. A question to you. I will, I'm speaking in the capacity of the Chairperson of the newly, well, not so newly appointed National Accreditation Council and may have we engaged with your team on behalf of the Council during the latter stages of the drafting process to bring to your awareness the fact that the new accreditation act became, that was passed in 2018, was made effective in February of last year. And since then we actually, we do have a functional secretariat getting ready to execute the functions under this act. This act makes reference specifically to the compulsory accreditation of all post-secondary school institutions, private, public, nonprofit, any type of organization operating and gives the Council the power, the authority to stop operations. If the institution has not met the criteria established by the Council. And I know accreditation is not always compulsory in all jurisdictions, but in this one it is. How do you reconcile this with your sections that relate to the granting of a permit to private schools and that authority being resting within the minister with no reference to the need to for accreditation process. The other aspect that of course we would be interested in is to, we notice and we thank you first for taking into consideration some of our other comments to the draft, to the bill. But what we're not seeing is that reference to this new order, which is going to, which is requiring all post-secondary institutions to be accredited. How would you address that? Thank you very much for the question and we greatly appreciated the consultation with the Council, it was very helpful. With regard to the national qualifications framework, for example, in the regulations, in the description of the national curriculum, we do have alignment with the national qualifications framework that is explicitly in the regulations. And in terms of the question that you posed about the operation of the schools, the permits for the schools, et cetera, a couple of points there. We have described the processes for the approval of the permit to operate, the grounds on which the permit might be rescinded. We've also, on the basis of many requests, provided stronger language around inspection, which I think is pertinent to your question. So we have made provision for inspections, we've strengthened the description, we have provided in the regulations as well, a list of issues to be addressed during inspections that the persons conducting the inspections would look for. And we've also beefed that up, it's not pertinent to your question per se, but in all areas, for all schools and for homeschooling as well. So we have attempted to provide that greater structure to monitor the quality of the programming that's being provided to the students in St. Lucia and to provide an avenue for having any issues or shortfalls addressed. And I'd ask if my colleagues would like to add anything further on that, Mrs. Anthony or Mrs. McKinnon? I would just, Mrs. Paula McKinnon, I would just like to add that we actually did discuss how the process would interface with the National Accreditation Council and we felt that in order that basically, if you look at it procedurally, what would happen is, at least for a private institution, the ministry would receive the application but that the ministry would not permit basically registration without involvement from the council. So we thought procedurally that is how it would work. If that isn't as clear as it might be in the act, we will certainly take that under advisement and adjust the wording accordingly. But we did certainly discuss it and consider it and thought that we had a process that would actually acknowledge the role of the council but if it wasn't clear to you, that is telling us something and I think we probably need to look at it a little bit more closely. Okay, thank you very much Paula and we are open to further discussions and then perhaps if at a subsequent meeting, once you have finished, you would like to engage with us and our legal council, we would not help you with that. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thank you. Thomas, you have your hand up, go ahead please. Yes, good afternoon. My concern is the area of the island scholarship. I want to know to what extent have your team looked at it in a different way to the way it was being seen traditionally because the island scholarship seemed to be focused was primarily on students who had completed A-level subjects and I don't see, based on what I have just seen, it doesn't appear to have made a difference now in the revised app and the technical and vocational education students tend to be missing out on that part and it is they were at Sao Paulo's Community College, for example, they had one time they were offered four scholarships. They were not called island scholarships but they were called government scholarships and it tends to make the students look different to students who pursue A-level subjects and as if it is more important, the island scholarship is on people who pursue who obtain island scholarships via this route is better than the students who pursue programs in the technical areas that they get the government scholarships and based on what I also observed, the scholarship you're talking about, if you're talking about advanced career advanced proficiency, that's what you have as one and then say other qualifications. So the other is not even mentioned what other qualifications we're talking about but that seems to be the dominant one. So I am concerned as somebody that in the area of technical vocational education and I'm a member of the TVET council I'm also a member of the condition council and I retired dean of the division of technical education and management studies at Sao Paulo's Community College trying to promote technical and vocational education generally and education in general. Thank you. Thank you very much for the question and this is a topic that has been flagged to us and we have certainly discussed around the need to have flexibility in the draft act to accommodate scholarships in other areas to accommodate them at colleges, to accommodate them as you're pointing out in skilled trades, for example, other occupations that are not following. The students may not follow the academic pathway as strictly as we've discussed earlier with regard to alternative education but they too are very deserving of financial support in pursuing their studies. Just a couple of things that I will point out with regard to the number of scholarships we've had questions about that as well and I think this is pertinent to your question. In part 10 in section 180 part four it states that the cabinet shall determine the number of scholarships to be awarded each year. So there may be a number of them. Certainly not just one, that's at the discretion of the cabinet however. And the other thing I would point out is that in section 188 it says that a bursary grant or scholarship at the cabinet may on terms and conditions that may be prescribed award a bursary grant or a scholarship to students in tertiary education as they think fit. So there is a provision there that scholarships and bursaries and grants can be made available to students in tertiary education beyond the strict island scholarship provisions. And I just wanted to point that out and that's in there for the reason that we heard from many people and we recognize that there's a need for flexibility to support people in training for different occupations. And Levy, you have your hand up as well. Please go ahead. Thank you very much, Monica. To you, Paula and Ms. Anthony and the Criptine, I'm very grateful to the work that you're doing, especially the sensitization work that you're doing in regards to this review of the Education Act. It is almost a first in recent times in our country that the people are participating and really it's part of the democratic process in such a, you know, in such regard. I have many comments or many things on different things, but I just wanted the comfort that this review is set within the, not only the Education Act is being reviewed, but the Education Act within context of other legislation. So for instance, the Constitution and the other legislation like the Teaching Service Commission Act or so on, because on a day-to-day basis, it is those different interests that manifested. That's one. And the second thing is that from my observation and I'm not just a distant observer, but I feel quite part of the education system, that there has been a power play between the Ministry of Education, the Teaching Service Commission, the trade union, teachers, parents or administrators and principals, which to a certain extent has in my view, undermined the performance of students because what is of paramount importance at the time is the power play and not the interests of the students. So I appreciate the fact that you speak about the holistic development of the child, but without an appreciation of how tyrannical this power play can be in the liars of the educators, I think that we're missing the point. I'm missing an important point. I can go on and speak more specifically, but perhaps for now it is just important to make the point generally. Thank you very much. And it is a really important point. You've made a couple of important points for sure. I just wanna speak to two of them. You've made more than two, but I wanna speak to two in particular. With regard to the assurance that this work is being done with a view to the other pertinent legislation, I wanna point out that another member of our team, a key member who has done the drafting is Ms. Kim Rose from St. Lucia who is a former attorney general. We've had ongoing discussions about the intersection of the draft act with the constitution in areas such as the appointment of different personnel, the rights of students, protecting the rights of students while balancing the need to do search and seizure. So we've been back and forth with the legislation. We've looked again at the teaching service commission legislation, all these different laws, even when you think about education acts and protection of students from child abuse or neglect and the legislation there. So we have been looking at it very carefully and attempting to make sure that we are in alignment. The other thing that you've raised that is crucially important. And this goes back to another foundation of this work that we haven't explicitly mentioned. And that's the best interest of the child. We have not stated that explicitly in this draft and perhaps we should. It certainly internationally and in the UN conventions on the rights of the child, one of the guiding principles is that educational decisions are made in the best interest of the child. And one of the reasons for that is the reality is there are often conflicting opinions among the adults as you've pointed out, but the focus has to remain on the best interest of the child and that the decision is taken in that regard. And that principle has been upheld. I know speaking from my own experience in Canada by the Supreme Court of Canada on disputes in education that have been heard before the court and it is a very well recognized principle. So I think we should take a look at perhaps expressly including that in the draft because you have raised a very important point and I thank you for that. And I'm just gonna check with my colleagues if there's anything in the chat or any other questions or comments. Yes, there is a comment in the chat. I just need to just bear with me while I bring it up. If I may just punctuate the silence while Paula does that. You know, and it's a really important point, Monica, because increasingly we see that there is a lot of interfacing between the police and minors. And it is something that I think that we should really bear away from. I don't want my minor children having interfaces with the police. And so it is important as part of the education strategy that young people and children are nurtured in a way that they are not having to interface with the police, especially from the criminal law standpoint of view. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, all of these different points about the well-being of children and putting that first, that's of the utmost importance. Thank you. Just before... Oh, sorry, go ahead. Just before we go into a question, also the proposed regulations actually are designed with that in mind. And that is the... And Dr. Williams mentioned the creation of basically positive behavior standards within schools. The basis of the proposed regulations are that schools are communities and that the national code of conduct can actually be a guide to establishing healthy and productive community. And that where the community, teachers, principals, learners all come together and establish an agreement about what is acceptable in terms of dress, in terms of action and what they as a community expect from each other. So this proposed code talks about what positive behavior is and it also outlines that everyone should have a copy and be aware of it, including parents and community members and all those who support learners. So the... And then in cases of misbehavior, the proposed regulations permit educators to act. Now, we know that educators do have to work in partnership with police and the regulations outline how that might occur. But the whole purpose of supporting principals, vice principals and teachers in maintaining a positive environment for learning within the schools is to do exactly what you have suggested and that is try and keep that involvement of police in schools to only when it's absolutely necessary. So your point is really, really important and something that we've thought about and talked about a great deal in the development of the proposed code of conduct. Question in the chat. Scholarship holders from St. Lucia do not normally return home to serve. What is different in this act will cause our students to return home upon completion of study? Thank you for the question. We did have a lot of discussion around that and feedback about this issue when we were looking at the St. Lucia scholarship. In this act, we have the bonding of the scholarship recipients and we also have in the draft the conditions that would lead to forfeiture of the scholarship. So we have made provision for that and it's recognized as a significant issue. I'm just gonna go to the exact, to the part of the act on the St. Lucia scholarship and go to that specific issue. So you can see in section 185 all the different grounds on which the scholarship can be forfeited. For example, in 185D, if the scholarship recipient fails to comply with the requirements under the act, et cetera. So, and on the bonding of the scholarship, you'll see in 186 specific reference to the bond shall require a recipient to return to St. Lucia on obtaining his or her qualification and B, to serve the government of St. Lucia or statutory authority in the country for a period of not less than the number of years of the scholarship. So they are bonded and that is how we attempted to provide a stronger structure with regard to that obligation to return following the completion of the studies. And that's a really important question. Thank you. Can I add in something here, Monica, on this? I think behind the scene discussions that we had, also this will require policy because government will have to do their background checks. Government will also have to decide what areas that are needed by the country for students because when students do seek to do and receive Island scholarships and they choose areas that they cannot practice on completion, what is it that we can do? The government may have to have a policy to look at the needs of the country in assigning scholarships. We do not want at the same time to restrict people's abilities, but that was a very critical question. And this is one that has been haunting the education system for a long time. Many of our student Island scholars have left and though some of them have done areas that could be very beneficial to Saint Lucia, they have failed to return. So I think we have addressed the consequences there in terms of having to report back or having to pay back for the scholarship. So I think this is everything cannot be placed in the regulations, but policies would have to be used to support the act and the regulations made. Thank you. Monica. Thank you very much, Fortuna. And Mr. Sanjus, do you have a comment or a question? Did you want to hear a comment? Sorry. Well, Mr. Sanjus comes on. There is one other or two other questions in the chat. The first one is, will the CDB model special education needs inclusive education policy and strategy framework document be considered in the revisions of the Education Act? Thank you for the question. And again, I want to emphasize that special education was a topic of tremendous interest to many stakeholders throughout our consultations. And we have certainly looked at the draft policy for special education that's being developed in Saint Lucia right now, with which I know Mr. Sanjus is involved in. We have been looking at developments in special education across the region. And also I would point out that we've been involved in an assessment of special education across the OECS, including Saint Lucia. The report was just released by the OECS in September. So this is an area where we have been looking at policies that are being developed, reports and assessments that have been conducted and attempting to reflect the findings and remain current with what's happening within this area. And the idea, for example, from about the parent teacher community association actually came from that work and was recommended to us to include in the act to support the, I'm sorry, that wasn't special education, but it was a different consultancy. But we have been actually looking at the different consultancies and the policies that are being developed so that the Education Act will enable those. So the introduction of a council for special needs education and inclusive education came from that work as well. So wherever possible, as quickly as possible, thanks to Edith Emanuel in the equip office, we have been provided with early copies of reports by the other specialists who have been working on policy development that relates to education so that we can consider it. Yes, and thank you Paula. Another consultancy that we've looked very closely at their findings was a recent consultancy on educational psychosocial supports in Saint Lucia schools. And we've added a section in the draft act toward the front of the act regarding the provision of educational psychosocial supports. So wherever possible, we're trying to incorporate those findings and recommendations. Mr. Sanjus, go ahead please. Good afternoon, everybody. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, we can. Yes, okay. Thank you so very much. I want to thank everyone for the work that has been done on this education act. I am excited that the section for special education is now so much larger than it was on the previous act. I have some queries about the term public and assisted schools. I look in the act, for example, in section 71 where it suggests that as far as I understand it that the term public or assisted schools is used essentially to mean mainstream or non-special schools. The reality in Saint Lucia is that the special schools on Ireland are either public schools or assisted schools. So I would need some measure of clarification where that is concerned. Still with the idea of public and assisted schools, there is in the regulation on page six guidance given with regard to admission to public and assisted schools but no mention to admission to special schools. I would suggest that we would need to have some kind of a statement in the act that speaks to how special schools can or should be populated. I also note on page nine of the regulation that there seems to be a suggestion that assisted schools are equivalent to denominational schools. Again, with the special schools that are assisted schools that is not so. So I would really like to have some clarification on that, please. Thank you for the question. I'm just flipping ahead now to page nine to look at that with regard to assisted schools and public schools. To your point, Mr. Sanjuist, special education schools were not referenced separately because our understanding was they were either public schools or assisted schools and they fell under those headings. So they weren't singled out. But this is something we could certainly look into. I don't know for Tuna or Paula if you wanted to comment on that further but that was how it came to be as it is. They fell under those two categories and so we went with that. If I might, Monica, yes, you're quite right. And the rationale behind that was that there are public schools, assisted schools, private schools that have very different programming. And so schools that offer special education, we saw as a unique program as opposed to how it was structured within the act, whether it was private or assisted or public. So that is the reason we want to provide the opportunity within the act to support all kinds of different alternative education. That's why we've put that term in so that should St. Lucian's wish to have a public or private or assisted school that has a specific emphasis that the act enables that to happen. So that was the rationale. But if I may, in section 71, it's basically speaks to the idea of a parent who has a child with special needs who wishes to have that child enrolled in a public or assisted school. There is, I think, an inherent assumption that when we speak of a public or assisted school in that section, that it is not referring to a school that is primarily a school for students with special needs. So I think then we should clarify it because it is the intention that if a parent and or a teacher believes that, again, the focus on the child believes that the child or the learner should be in a public or private or assisted school that offers special programming, then there should be an avenue for them to do that. So that is entirely the intention and we will look at the interpretation section and the definitions to make sure that that's clearly understood. Thank you so much for raising it. Thank you. Agatha, I see your hand up. Go ahead, please. Okay, good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes, good afternoon. I am a retired educator with the Ministry of Education and I must say I am gratified this afternoon to see that there is something in the act about students, scholarship holders being bonded. I am the one who raised a question earlier. I monitor for year in and year out, for year in, year after year. Solution students receive scholarships to study abroad, whether it's Island Scholar or otherwise, they do not return. We are a small country with a small economy and government spending so much money to train those students to give them a university education and the universities and countries, the United States and Canada, they are guilty of brain draining our country. So this afternoon, I'm gratified to see that there is something in the act. I don't know how it's worded and it doesn't matter to ensure that our students return home to serve, at least to serve for a while, not to return to the country what we have given them. So thank you very much for including this aspect in the act. Thank you very much for the comment. We appreciate it. And it is an issue that received a lot of discussion. So thank you. Any other questions in the chat, Paula, or comments? Yes, I remember that. Sorry, I just wanted to pipe in based on the comment that was just made. I appreciate very much what the comment about the brain drain. But I also wonder when these young people come back very qualified, are we ensuring that they get employment when they return to the country? Because they very well know that they have received, they receive the education, but then they come home and there's nothing for them to do. Do we guarantee these students that we have assisted with scholarships that they will be employed when they return home? Okay, can I say something that goes back to a question that Mrs. Anthony raised earlier. And that is scholarship should be awarded on the basis of the needs of the country, not just what a student wants to study, but just what this person is saying and the question Mrs. Anthony raised earlier, I think that the government should look clear into when you're awarding scholarship, make sure you can absorb that person when the person has completed studies and returns to sent to teachers. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you for that question about the employment in the section of the Act, section 186 on the bonding of the scholarship recipient. Part three states, a scholarship recipient shall be offered an appointment appropriate to his or her qualification at an initial remuneration as is paid to a holder of like office in St. Lucia. So it says a scholarship recipient shall be offered an appointment. And then the next part says, if the government does not provide an appointment appropriate to the qualification within six months, then the bonded recipient is released. So to your point, that is another question that came up about having appropriate employment for them and that is addressed in the draft act as well. Monica. Yes. And Monica, there's several comments in the chat. The first one is a single education council that has subdivisions committees that advise on early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary and special education, inclusive education. In our opinion would more effectively foster collaboration in integrative services than multiple separate councils. So we understand. Monica, did you want to reply to that comment or accepted as a comment? Thank you for the comment. And I can see where you're coming from in terms of efficiency. One of the realities that we're dealing with among others is that in the existing act of 2005, there were some councils already established that had very distinctive mandates. In particular, for example, the TVET council. And so we added the special education, inclusive education council modeled on the TVET model. So we have attempted to be efficient in keeping the format, the operation, the composition, et cetera consistent. And I don't, just speaking as an educational leader myself, I don't know that there would be one council that would have the expertise that's needed in all different areas of education to provide the type of specialized guidance that's necessary to advance those different components of education because education is becoming increasingly specialized and there's a need for expert knowledge in the different fields in order to ensure that a system remains up to date and in keeping with the latest best practices. So that would be my concern, but I certainly appreciate the comment. Go ahead, Paula. And the next question is what are the consequences for parents, a parent or parents who refuse or fail to cause their children, child to attend school regularly and punctually? Thank you for the question. And this is an issue that's come up repeatedly, questions around accountability. And we have attempted to be explicit around accountability. We've spelled out the rights and duties of students and parents, for example, for every right there's a responsibility for parents who do not cause their children to attend school as required. There are consequences up to and including fines that are specified in the act. And the next one is representing the interests of our credit union movement, which is an integral part of family life in St. Lucia. Are there any provisions or considerations in the act for teaching financial literacy in all of our schools? That's an excellent question. And when you look at the national curriculum as described in the regulations, there is provision for different subjects in there that financial literacy might fall under, but it's not a separate category unto itself. So that's something that we'll note. It can be accommodated in the curriculum, but it's not a separate subject. And it's very important. Section 100 deals with loitering in a bar. However, we should also address the issue of children loitering in unlicensed places where alcohol is sold, such as and roadside vendors. Thank you for the question. We have looked at language around extending it beyond bars to lounges, to places where alcoholic beverages are served. And so in the drafting process, we've been back and forth on the exact language. So we have looked at exactly what you're describing and we'll make note to revisit that again, because we are trying to get the wording very plain and as comprehensive as possible. And this comment, I believe, relates to Mr. Saint-Jus' comment about assisted and public and private schools. This is the clarification as necessary because a category of assisted may prohibit the provision of certain services by virtue of its status. So thank you for that. We can certainly look in to make sure that the category of assisted does not have any prohibitions in it. We didn't anticipate that they would. But we certainly have noted that. Is there a reason why Division III dealing with special needs education addresses the council before addressing the special needs education itself? That's a good question. In terms of the organization of how the different parts are structured, we rely on the expertise of our drafters. And so the sequence goes back to the established practices that are followed for drafting as we understand it. And so the council came first. I think part of the reason too, aside from established drafting practices, is that the council would have a leadership role with special education needs and with inclusive education. And for that reason, it comes first in that section of the act. How will the challenges presented by AI and related new technologies be addressed in the act? That is also an issue that has been raised in the town hall meetings that we have not explicitly addressed in the act. We have addressed a number of technology issues. For example, within the realm of student discipline, in the National Code of Conduct, we've addressed cell phones, appropriate use of technology. We've addressed cyberbullying. So we've addressed, and we've talked about online education, blended education, but not AI specifically. So we are going to follow up and look into that. It's an important point and it's not singled out in the draft that we currently have. So thank you for raising it. Section 86-4 says a student shall not be retained in a primary school that is a public school or an assisted school after the end of the year in which he or she attains the age of 15 years. I was wondering why the need for this and also what provisions are in place for such students at least up to the age of 17. So one of the issues that we grappled with quite a bit was the ages for students at different levels of education because we recognize, for example, with secondary school, just to give you one example, we have an age of entry there, but we may have gifted children who would enter secondary school when they're younger than 12 because they're being accelerated in their educational programming. So we have it up to age 15 as the maximum as a guideline, but we recognize that there are issues that may crop up in exceptions and we tried to build that flexibility into the act. With regard to, if I understood the question correctly, up to age 17 in secondary school, we also have added in the act, and this is new, a provision for an extended school age of 18 to 20 years because we recognize there are some youth who require extra time to complete secondary school. We also recognize there are students with special needs who stay until age 20. And so we have added that flexibility in the act that some students can stay beyond the compulsory school age of 17 in order to complete their studies. I think the thrust of this question from Ms. Crane Mitchell is that it basically indicates that students who are 15 years can no longer stay in primary school. So if they can no longer stay in primary school and I'm interpreting here, so please jump in if I've misinterpreted, but if they can no longer stay in primary school and they have not met the learning outcomes of primary school, what provisions are in place for them until between the ages of 15 and 17 when they must stay in school? Yes, thank you, that was it. Oh, that was it, okay, sorry, I misinterpreted the question. We don't have explicit provisions spelled out, so it's a very good question. We haven't encountered thus far and we will look into that. We haven't spelled that out. We have had no local early intervention therapists for 25 years since the inception of CDGC. No scholarships have been offered in this area despite repeated advocacy, so I think that's a comment. And I think that is something that we became aware of also in our discussions. Is there anything there, Dr. Williams, that you wanted to comment on? I'd just like to reinforce the comment and thank you for it. Certainly in the work that's been completed in the area of special education, we recognize that there are several professions that are an extremely short supply in St. Lucia for working with children, including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, early interventionists, psychologists, all these many different professions who can support children and families. So thank you for the comment and I'd just like to say I agree 100%. Another comment, might the six months to find employment be short given the delays sometimes experienced in going through the public services process? Thank you. That was the benchmark that we used. We thought that was reasonable. I think partially because we are going on the assumption that before a student graduates, completes their studies, there would be a search for employment, a match up to positions underway, but we'll take that under advisement. Also the outline of duties for the CEO seems to be very exhaustive, but can infringe on the autonomy of the DEOs and principals. So in looking at the powers and duties and responsibilities of senior ministry leaders, we look to various sources and this goes back to our discussion about other legislation. In this regard, in particular the constitution with regard for example to the role of permanent secretary, we tried to align with other legislation. We also looked at recent job postings in St. Lucia for various teaching, counseling, leadership positions and tried to align the duties with what has been posted in the country. So that's where the job descriptions came from and how we arrived at the lists of duties. And also, if correct me if I'm wrong Dr. Williams, but I do believe that the CEO also has the right to assign duties. So in some ways it's not, it is possible for the CEO even though there is an exhaustive list there, there is the right of the CEO to assign responsibility for certain elements of the work to others. Is that correct? That's correct. They have the power of delegation. They can delegate some of the duties to others, absolutely. Okay, another, oops, just another comment. I would argue that makeup of councils needs revision. There is a limited number of persons with expertise in early childhood special education needs and not enough people to go around to fill multiple councils. So I think that's another point in the discussion around a single council with subgroups that perhaps there's just not enough people to populate the multiple councils. And also that three members of Ministry of Education on a council is top heavy. Okay, so the composition, we will take a look at that. Thank you for that input. And then another comment, no occupational therapists, two speech and language therapists, one physiotherapist, short supply is an understatement noted. And then the final one in the chat is please clarify the extent to which the act protects the child's right to education. Young girls who drop out with the knowledge of parents and others forced or enabled withdrawal from school, what is the role of the state bearing in mind culturally supported behavior, poverty, criminal activity, lack of state capacity? So we've attempted to support the child's right to attend school by expanding the compulsory school age. We have made it a duty of parents to ensure that their children do attend school. We have strengthened the role of the school attendance officers to enforce attendance at school. And we have also attempted to provide supports in the form of, as I mentioned, adding school counselors into the act and their important role in assisting students with some of the difficulties that you mentioned there that may bar their attendance. One of the other things that's come up in another town hall that we hadn't addressed explicitly that we're going to be looking at is around reintegration. If a student has been out of school for a prolonged period of time, how do we support that student to come back to school to become reintegrated? So that's a related issue that we're going to be looking at. We also, as we pointed out, had consequences for parents who do not support their child's attendance at school up to and including fines. New to the act as well are prohibitions against student employment during school hours. Prohibitions against operators of entertainments and cinemas and arcades, admitting school-aged children to the premises during school hours. We've added prohibitions against loitering in a bar. So we've tried to put extra strength in the act to prevent these different possibilities as to why children might not be in school that they'd be at these other places of business. And that's a new addition as well. Student attendance is a very complex issue and we heard from many people marked concerns about it, especially in the wake of the pandemic. And so we did put all these extra provisions in the act in an attempt to address those concerns, but there's always more that can be done. And there is a hand up. I think it's Ms. Polion. Would you like to go ahead, please? Good afternoon, main Polion, representing the Senator Tejas Union. Well, I'm one of the representatives. The Senator Tejas Union is very excited that you have allowed these consultations to go on. However, we want to recommend that you continue the engagement. We feel that more engagement is required with teachers in particular. And it should be on a face-to-face basis because I honestly believe that sometimes the online forum, it does not allow us to get the full kind of expressions that we need one. And sometimes people pretend to be engaged and they are not. And we believe that like other times, at the time when we had the new prison, the new prisoners coming on, there were workshops, there were district meetings and so on to try to get the teachers more involved. So we want to just restate that there is need for more discussion with teachers in particular because the Education Act, it has implications for teachers and the education system in general. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And we certainly recognize the primary role of teachers and the impact that the Revised Education Act would have on teachers. So thank you for the comments. We have had consultations with the St. Lucia Teachers Union, but I appreciate what you're saying about a teacher involvement. I don't know Mrs. Cook McKinnon if you wanted to comment further on that. No, I, we all believe that it's very important that teachers understand and are familiar with the proposed recommended changes to the Education Act. There has to come a time when we also agree that we must move on. The St. Lucia desperately needs a new Education Act. So the 2005 Act does not meet the needs that teachers have right now or principals or vice principals and they need the support of a modern act. So we totally agree that discussion is important and we will take your comment under advisement as we proceed through the process. Mr. Belong, I believe. I'm sorry if I've mispronounced that. Yeah, Beloy. Yes, thank you. Once again, I am back on the scholarship side. We are, when we speak of island scholars or island scholarship, we are primarily thinking of students going out of St. Lucia to pursue further education. And I think that at the time it will, if we were to try to find out to what extent are we taking into account the national qualification framework for the country and that our students would not have, a lot of them may not have reason to go out of St. Lucia to study and pursue programs right here in St. Lucia that are designed, made in St. Lucia, accepted everywhere else, wherever. So we have to focus on our own country as well, not only looking towards sending students outside of St. Lucia. The other aspect is that there's need to be, there's need for a mechanism or system in place for debriefing of students. Students go on scholarship and when they return, they are not being debriefed. The information that they gather from the countries of where they studied and so on and so on. And this information is not being disseminated among the populace, among the persons. So there is need for that kind of thing. They prepare dissertations and various, they work hard. I know as a former scholar myself, we work hard. And then your information stays on the shelf sometimes because there are people in the system who do not even want your stuff to go forward. They believe you should let somebody else do what it is that you have recommended. And I know that that is an example that I had. And then we find ourselves lagging behind because we do not value our own enough. So I would want to see that we have to look at the time when we have persons trained in St. Lucia and getting scholarships in St. Lucia. And we have to show the value in what the students have had to do overseas and show the populace, what it is that they have gained. People go out, there are lots of things we can learn from the countries away from St. Lucia. So I'm not saying that it should already be in St. Lucia. I know you can learn a lot. But what is it that you do with that information that you have gathered? And to what extent you are helping to improve the situation in St. Lucia? So I am very strong on that side of it. And I think the bonding has always been there. Yes, I know Ms. James spoke about it. It's not new. This has been there. Students have been asked to sign and bonds and all that. So what is forcing them to come back? No, sometimes they come back and then they are too qualified for the job that you were applying for. And in some cases they go back overseas and then they have difficulty. And sometimes we have our brilliant St. Lucia's like Sir Arthur Lewis who has been chastised at one time when he visited Sir Arthur Lewis College by a youngster asking, where has it been? Well, we have not heard about you and all that. It was not very nice, but he never came back home to work in St. Lucia. So, but yet he contributed to the world. He contributed everywhere. So the focus must not only be on St. Lucia, but what contribution can the individual make to improve humanity, wherever. And I know we spend a lot of money, but we also get grant funding. We get support from other countries where they use their taxpayers' money to assist our students. So the students have an opportunity to make a contribution in the world. Yes, they must make a contribution to St. Lucia and we must put mechanism in place to welcome them and to make the information available to us and to see how best we can make use of whatever they have gone out to study. But I don't think... Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Alexander? Hey, good day. Firstly, I would... Sorry, I'm driving. I would like to commend the ministry for tackling something like this, the Education Act. I think it's something good and a good initiative that they're taking. I just wanted to reinforce or re-echo something that someone mentioned not too long ago about the consultation with the teachers. To my awareness, and maybe I'm sun-charactered, I think one consultation was held with a secondary school and I think one was held with the SLTU. I do once again commend the ministry for doing such, but the majority of the Education Act affects heavily teachers, students, and parents. And I think the consultation should be heavily engaged around these individuals. And something as so serious, I don't think to... Like I said, I maybe stand corrected. One consultation from the end of those organizations may not be sufficient. And I think more teachers need to be rallied up to have consultations with, and even letting them know the importance of this. And I just wanted to re-echo the statements of the other individual who mentioned about consulting more with teachers. I really feel like more need to be consulted with them. And what you are doing is currently good and I do applaud you all for it, but I just wanted to re-echo that fact that the Education Act, like I said, would be heavily affecting teachers and what they can do and how they can raise the future citizens of San Lucia. So I think if they are the footmen of all these acts, then I think they need to be heavily engaged because I mean, I may be a doctor and come and give recommendations about the acts with all my expert knowledge and background degrees, but the person who's directly in it, who are the teachers and who are directly moved by Instagram and stuff, are the ones that need to be heavily engaged in saying what needs to be changed, what needs to be fixed, what have not been working, what has been working, what has... What can work and what have not been enforced from the ministry's end, you know? And I'm speaking from the experience of a young teacher, maybe one of the youngest teachers, no, I'm not the youngest teacher, but there's a young teacher on the whole. So I, like I said, I just wanted to re-echo because it's very crucial. If we don't get something like that wrong, right, sorry. Our educational system can actually be worse than we found it because you may implement all those policies, but then if you never consulted the groundmen to implement the right policies, then really can be strenuous and also your policy and the people who's executing their policy might not be able to work hard in hand. And like I said, that's the worst thing you'd want. So... Thank you. We agree with you, Mr. Alexander. And actually I know that the teachers union has tried very hard to organize discussions with teachers and that kind of organization piece went on for several months and then they actually invited a representative of our group to attend their conference, which actually provided us with excellent input into the work that we've done in informing this draft. And I really commend the teachers union for the work that they have done in supporting the consultation. I know they have worked very hard as well and we have had more than one conversation with the teachers union, either directly as consultants or through the equip office. So we believe it's a very important partnership and we do want teachers input. And I would ask that you and anyone else on this call today reinforce or share with those you know that there are five additional consultations going to be held this evening. All of them are at six o'clock. We deliberately did that. So that persons would be free. We hoped to participate. So there's one this evening at six o'clock and there's one each evening next week, Monday through Thursday at six o'clock as well. So we really want the... We really, really sincerely want the input and we, I think we and the teachers union are working as hard as possible to try and solicit that input to, as you say, inform what... To make sure that the Education Act that results is as informed as possible. Thank you. And I think we'll go to the regulations now, please Paul. Sure. So we have one slide and overview of the regulations and go to some discussion of those in the proposed regulations. And if they are adopted, they would be the first education regulations in the history of the country. And the regulations certainly assist with the interpretation and implementation of the act. They provide the supporting procedures for implementation. So there are a crucial piece of this review. Part one in the regulations deals with the administration of schools. Guidelines are provided for the length of the school year, the length of the school day, how the school calendars constructed, the length of vacations, et cetera. And one of the issues that has been raised with us repeatedly, often by teachers, speaking of teachers, has been that they don't feel they have enough time to teach the curriculum. There are a lot of interruptions. And so we have emphasized in the administration of schools the protection of teaching time so that teachers can teach. Part two is the national curriculum. It's aligned with the national qualifications framework and there's a description of the primary and secondary curriculum contained in the regulations, including the subjects offered in different grades and different forms. Part three is the management of schools and this goes back to public, assisted, private schools, provisions for homeschooling and also for school visits and inspections. And as I mentioned a little while ago, we have provided a list and the recommendations of the matters to be addressed when inspections are conducted. Part four addresses councils and associations. And we had the question earlier about students councils. There's also a national students council and the parent teacher community associations that we spoke of earlier. Part five describes the school code of conduct, the national code of conduct in detail, including the guiding principles, the standards of behavior, the standard for appropriate dress, categories of misbehavior, acceptable and unacceptable responses to misbehavior and the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved. Students, parents, teachers, school administrators, the Ministry of Education, community members, as Paula pointed out earlier, everyone has a role to play in the school community in promoting and enforcing positive behavior. Part six deals with disciplinary complaints and describes the procedure for hearing disciplinary complaints. Part seven outlines the process for an appeal through the Education Appeals Tribunal. And part eight is miscellaneous. It contains different schedules and forms. For example, the zoning scheme for schools in St. Lucia is found there as well as an application form for a permit to operate a private school. So these are the different procedures and guidelines that are provided in the regulations. Next slide, please, Paula. So we'll just pause here and ask for any questions or comments on the draft regulations. There are some comments here in the chat, Monica, and I'm just not, I think some of them are carried over from pages seven and eight of the regulations address ceremonies to celebrate achievement and participation in national regional assessment. However, the rights of student to participate in these is not addressed. In the act, throughout the act, there's a focus on inclusion and that students are, all students are full participating members of their school communities. So although we haven't spelled out the right to participate with regard to those celebrations, we have throughout the act emphasized that all children should be fully participating members in their schools. So we can note that for pages seven and eight, but I just wanted to point out that that emphasis throughout the act. Thank you for raising that. And another comment, I'm interested in accountability of the education system. How does the act inform monitoring and evaluation of school performance and quality of the education instruction and experience at all levels and across the island? Quality is addressed in the act in different ways. Certainly with regard to the purpose of the act, the number one purpose is to ensure that high quality education is provided to the students of St. Lucia. We've also emphasized that in the national curriculum, the provision of quality teaching and learning opportunities for all students. So we have emphasized that with regard to the monitoring, I'm gonna go back to a number of provisions that are there, including the inspections. So one of the matters that's looked at in school inspections is student performance, samples of student work, the types of programming they're receiving. So there is that monitoring function built in there. And also when we look at the accountability from the perspective of the duties of parents, I've spoken about that with regard to attendance. So we have built in monitoring, we've emphasized quality. Again, there's always more work to be done. And I'm gonna ask if Paula or Fortuna would like to speak to that more. If there are any other provisions in the act around monitoring and accountability that you'd like to speak to. I'm fine, thank you. That was good, I thought. Okay, great. And it really... Could I? Go ahead. Go ahead. Mrs. Anthony, go ahead. I said likewise as well, come on. Oh, okay. And... I should also add that we've added in more monitoring and accountability for homeschooling. There has to be prior approval by the chief education officer of homeschooling programs. They have to follow the national curriculum. And we've also made it recommended that it's mandatory that the homeschooling programs be inspected at least once a year. So we've tried to strengthen accountability on that front as well. So the question I was actually going to ask from the chat was, will the school inspector still have a function or role in the monitoring and evaluation of schools and students? I think it would be fair to say yes, actually more. Yes, very much. And let me just... How are sports and extracurricular activities incorporated into the school day? With regard to specific allocations for sports, we haven't made specific allocations. But again, we have emphasized the mental and physical health and well-being of students, which extracurricular activities certainly support. And we've also, with regard to the national curriculum, included physical education, all those different subjects, healthy relationships that support student well-being. So we haven't set aside specific time, but we have addressed and emphasized the importance of children having the opportunity to develop their mental and physical well-being. And certainly extracurriculars are an important avenue for that. And then another question, could the scope of the appeals mechanism, which is being proposed, be extended to include all matters related to education institutions, such as tertiary on matters related to disputes on accreditation decisions? That's a really good question. I can't say we've encountered so far. We'll have to take that under advisement. With regard to appeals, the focus of it at present is around the appeal of decisions about a student that perhaps a parent doesn't agree with. It's been more that focus on individual students and the decisions affecting them. I will say in the draft act that the grounds on which the permit to operate, for example, can be revoked are there and there is a mechanism by which the revoked permit can be appealed. So there are some different pieces throughout the act, but not in this concentrated way at an institutional level. So we'll have to take that under advisement and thank you very much for raising it. We haven't encountered that thus far. And then the last comment in the chat, under the transfer section, what is outlined seems to be the procedure for primary schools. As it pertains to secondary schools, transfers are done through the assessment unit as students transferred in keeping with the CPE8 grades. Thank you for that point. We have had a question in a previous town hall about information in addition to grades being utilized in student transfers. And we haven't discussed this yet, but in the draft act, we've made provision for school records to be kept on all students, including information like attendance, performance, assessment results, et cetera, so that that information could factor into the transfer requests of primary and secondary students. And that's something that we recognize we need to make more explicit for the secondary students. So that's another area that we're looking at and thank you for raising that. Hello. Sorry, I was there trying to find the hand icon. Just wanted to clarify, because as it pertains to secondary school, one of the things we've found sometimes is sometimes a parent may not have qualified during the CPE examination for a particular school. They would send the child to the school that the child is assigned, and later on try to get the child to school that is higher. Part of the whole idea of the assessment unit doing the transfers or undertaking the transfers is to avoid this, I'm trying to show that there is this accountability in the process. But if a child is receiving a transfer, then they go into the grades and they would assess it based on, for instance, whether the child, whether the child, for instance, gets a grade higher or lower. As it pertains to the primary schools, it is usually principle to principle, but I can see what was outlined coming in. So the concern was how we do the transfer for the secondary, whether going, for instance, through the chief or through this, whether we, I'm trying to get the right word. Maybe the rest of the team can assist. Whether we are maintaining the standard that students are assigned to secondary schools based on grades in effect. Thank you for that clarification. That's really helpful. And we'll certainly look at that. And I see what you mean about the difference there in the primary and secondary. So we will take that under advisement. Thank you very much. Can I add in here, Monica, that transfers to secondary schools has a very clear process to it where the parent would make the application, the chief would deal with the examination unit, but the students, for example, if a student had been assigned to a particular school with a specific grade and the child begins to perform very, very well, all the documents on that child's assessment would have to be produced when the parent is seeking a transfer to a particular school. So that has to be taken into consideration that that's why the ministry normally would not just transfer children without evidence that there is an increase in performance to because by the time children are assigned to specific schools, it is because the examination unit has set clear parameters in terms of the scores, et cetera, et cetera. Okay. Thank you very much, Fortuna. And there is a hand raised, I think, Hendo. Yes. I just wanted to add to the conversation and good afternoon, colleagues. In terms of the transfer, they are also, unfortunately, what we call there, they are also rare circumstances of situations. For example, at a secondary school where a child may be at a particular school, maybe molested, maybe bullied, and there are peculiar situations that arise. And the chief education officer, based on his or her discretion and the availability of space, may choose to assign a child is respective of the score, but based on his or her proper assessment, and I guess in consultation with various personnel. So these are situations that are currently obtained. So I just wanted to add that to the mix for both of us. Fortuna, thank you for that. But I think you left out, they also require evidence that the child is being bullied or in, for example, in rare cases where a child becomes pregnant and wants to return to school. There is also a conversation with the little child to the same school. Am I right? I'm Sikodra or the child, yes. So there are exceptional situations. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. And we'll go to the next slide, please. And these are our last questions for this afternoon before we go to wrap up. We wanna make sure that we hear your priorities. What do you think are the top priorities that need to be addressed in the Draft Education Act and Regulations? If there are issues that haven't been discussed so far and you wanna put them in the chat box or raise your hand, we'd really like to hear from you. What are the top priorities that need to be addressed? And what do you hope will come out of the Draft Education Act and Regulations? What do you hope to see as a result of this work? So if anyone would be so kind as to comment either in the chat or raise your hand on your priorities and hopes, we'd really like to hear from you. And none of them have been addressed, but... Yeah, and one comment is universal early childhood. And there's also a comment here, I think related to the last discussion with the introduction of the MST exam for grade twos and fours. I believe this exam is stressful for both teachers and students since the students are at a tender age. I honestly believe that the Ministry of Education should revise this examination and find a better way to assess students. With regard to assessment, we have... See you all tomorrow. Bye, Anya, bye, Anya. Hang on, I'll just get some mic. With regard to assessment, we have really emphasized the need for balanced assessment and not an over-reliance on examinations. We've really emphasized, and this is highlighted in the national curriculum, the need for constant monitoring of student progress, gathering evidence about their performance from different sources and observations. And so we agree that an over-reliance on examinations is not... It's certainly not in keeping with best practices and that we need to expand the evidence that's collected on where students are in their learning. And some comments in the chat, as far as what do you hope will come out, that the education... Oops, just bounced. That the Education Act takes a giant leap forward towards inclusive... That the education sector takes a giant leap forward towards inclusive education. Statement on how promotion of gifted learners will occur, school attendance is a priority. Thank you. They're all certainly very important in the provision of quality education to the children. Monitoring student population for a three to 17-year-old age range is a mammoth task. Someone else said sound monitoring and accountability is a priority. And accountability is something that many participants in the town halls have emphasized and we are certainly looking at that closely and taking it under advisement to see can we strengthen that further in the draft act and the regulations? Thank you very much for those suggestions. And I believe we'll go to the next slide, please follow. So I just wanna provide you with a quick snapshot of the next steps. What's going to happen next? The questions and comments provided by participants in each town hall meeting are being recorded and then they'll be analyzed to identify the main topics and issues that have been raised. And these topics and issues will be addressed in the validation and finalization of the draft Education Act and regulations. Once we have that final draft prepared, we will submit the final draft and accompanying report to the government of St. Lucia for their consideration. So these are the next steps that are coming after the town halls. Next slide, please follow. And I'm gonna go back for closing comments to Mr. Kodra who opened the session this afternoon. And I wanna thank everyone very sincerely for the excellent conversation and participation in our town hall this afternoon. We really appreciate your input. Thank you so much. The direction I'm monitoring is Mr. Seapal who opened the discussion. Thank you very much. My apologies, Mr. Seapal. I'm gonna turn it over to you. Thank you. Thank you so very much. I guess because you heard Mr. Kodra earlier on, you thought it was Mr. Kodra. But if he's on medical leave, Mr. Kodra, we wish you speedy recovery and hope you will be back ASAP. All right, let me thank you, our consultants for once again coming through with a very productive consultation and all of our stakeholders who contributed, the concerns that will raise the different areas and SLTU requesting for further consultation, especially with the teachers, since the teachers will be directly impacted. They will be the ones carrying out the actual, putting that with day-to-day affairs of the Education Act. And then we, in administration, we are facilitating that process with them. So once again, our team from Mindblue, okay, including our local consultant, Ms. Anthony. All right, we do thank you once again and we look forward to another wonderful consultation where we are looking forward to the end of the process when this book will be launched. All right, so once again, thank you very much everybody for contributing. We're looking forward to having you once again and we say God bless and continue to impact the lives that God has entrusted in your care. God bless everyone. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much, Mr. C. Paul. And thank you very much to everybody. I've been scribing away at top speed and we will look back and review and amend. Thank you for your invaluable input. Thank you. Bye-bye. Okay, goodbye. Thank you, goodbye, Joel. Thank you.