Gopeesingh clears the air on textbooks for schools

Education Minister Tim Gopeesingh said Wednesday media reports claiming that he has said there would not be any free books for school children this year are false and misleading.

In a media release, Gopeesingh categorically refuted what he called  unfounded allegations.

The release said Gopeesingh has discussed the textbook issue at length with Ministry of Education officials over the last four months, during which the views of principals and school supervisors we also sought.

The minister took this action after discovering that the education ministry had been without a Textbook Evaluation Committee since 2002.

In addition, the release said a number of authors and publishers have  complained of injustice and unfair treatment because the ministry refused to buy their books for the past eight years.

Gopeesingh said he is trying to bring about an open and transparent process in the matter by asking principals and schools supervisors to provide the lists of textbooks that they would like to use in schools.

The ministry said two meetings have been held with publishers and booksellers within the last three months in an effort to find a solution.

"It was discovered that currently, there are four main publishers in Trinidad and Tobago who have not received any support for printing of textbooks for use in the schools, and, at its most recent meeting, the booksellers and publishers agreed for this open and transparent textbook evaluation and selection process to be implemented in the next academic year," the ministry said.

It added that thousands of textbooks which were delivered to primary and secondary schools which are still unwrapped and not being used.

In view of this the ministry has advised that the existing textbooks in their schools which were supposed to be used for a three year period would continue to be used for this academic year, with the Ministry of Education replacing the textbooks which have been mutilated or lost.