Black Immigrant Daily News

During the government’s Innovation Week expo on Friday, programmer Jesse Field wore a blue shirt adorned with the outline of a skeleton. When attendees approached him, he asked them to aim a tablet at his torso.

This caused a diagram of the human body to pop up on the tablet screen, showing a rib cage surrounding a heart and lungs that moved with each breath.

The educational programme was among many demonstrations on display that day. The event at the Save the Seed Energy Centre in Duffs Bottom — which was organised by the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports — showcased various activities that are happening in schools across the territory.

“The theme for education this school year is ‘Virgin Islands education moving full STEAM ahead.’ So STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics,” said Education, Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Sharie de Castro. “Our children have been to the various centres here today and they’ve really been engaging. This type of experience is really exploratory and experiential learning. It says that we want you to do, we want you to touch, we want you to feel.”

Activities

Stations at the expo included critical-thinking exercises, chess games, visual arts, robotics, engineering, 3D printing and aLego section. The critical-thinking station — one of the most difficult tables in the minister’s opinion — included puzzles and mazes. Members of the BVI Chess Federation manned another station.

“The types of skills that you learn in chess — the critical thinking, the strategy — are transferable to life,” Ms. de Castro said. “We’re looking forward to putting chess into the curriculum at our schools.”

At the robotics station, Ms. de Castro said she was impressed by how quickly students were able to programme robots to navigate mazes and do other tricks. Students also erected model buildings, helicopters, and other structures at the engineering table and at the Lego station.

To ‘reimagine’ education

Ms. de Castro said government has been trying to “reimagine” education in the territory. Although there have been drastic changes in technology and transportation over the past 100 years, she noted, classrooms “still look the same.”

“How about we reimagine the way our classroom should look?” she said. “The children don’t mind sitting on the floor. They would love to go on the floor with these Legos and sit down all day and build. When they finish building, we ask them to write a descriptive piece or a process piece on what they built.”

Such “project-based learning” increases children’s creativity and ingenuity, she said.

Mr. Field said that the week-long event has brought “excitement in the hearts of kids.”

“This technology is not for us: It’s for our kids,” he said. “It’s for us to give them the opportunities and the skills necessary to create the future that they need.”

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More than 40 performers will take the stage at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College on Saturday to bring to life a children’s book by a Virgin Gorda author and a Tortola illustrator.

The play Under the Sea with Anansi is based on Anika Christopher’s book Anansi and the Green Sea Turtles, which was illustrated by Walden Benjamin.

The book tells the story of a village with no moonlight, where baby sea turtles struggle to find their way to the ocean.

Anansi the Spider, a character from West African and Virgin Islands folklore, steps in to try to resolve the issue.

“I am pleased with this opportunity to bring the pages of my story alive,” Ms. Christopher said in a press release. “This picture book presents the perfect balance between educational and entertaining content. Having it produced on stage presents a whole new way for children to engage with this magical story.”

The production features performers from the BVI Dance School and the Elmore Stoutt High School Senior Theatre Group, and Justin Hodge will perform live music.

The dances were choreographed by Sylvanna Charles.

“I’ve been tasked with merging the art of dance and storytelling together for this production,” Ms. Charles said. “I’m glad that my students not only get the opportunity to per- form on stage but also learn about the cultural folktales of Brother Anansi.”

Dance styles will range from tap to contemporary to ballet to African dance, the press release stated.

The public is invited to attend the show, which is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at the Eileene L. Parsons Auditorium. Tickets cost $20 for children and $30 for adults. Special VIP tickets, at $30 per child, include preferred seating and a discounted copy of Anansi and the Green Sea Turtles.

Tickets are for sale at Nook Bookstore and J & C Trading. Ms. Christopher said a portion of the proceeds will go towards performing arts programmes at the BVI Dance School and ESHS.

For more information call 545-3306 or email anikachristopher@hotmail.com.

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Finance Minister Colm Imbert. – COURTESY OFFICE OF THE PARLIAMENT

FINANCE MINISTER COLM IMBERT lauded the Central Statistical Office for having “quite up-to-date” information on its platform since it signed on to a system managed by the International Monetary Fund.

“I must congratulate them,” the minister said at the ICATT conference at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain. “Since they entered into this exchange of information system with the IMF, together with the Ministry of Finance, it is now quite up to date in terms of reporting GDP and other major statistics, whereas you might (previously) have had to wait two years to get that information. The CSO, as far as I can see, is now compliant with international requirements.”

Imbert said institutional strengthening is a major factor in ensuring greater monetary and financial stability and improved debt management. He said enhancing institutional capacity was a top-priority objective for Government.

“The Ministry of Finance is also driving sustainability that supports the transformational agenda within the public service through the implementation of an integrated financial management information system (IFMIS), with one central database and operation on one single entry point for all classifications of fiscal data. This new system will become fully operational in 2023 and allow us to see our financial situation in real time,” he said.

He said the system would support the adoption of the cash-basis international public-sector accounting standards (IPSAS), the development of a cash-management strategy which would include active cash-management and cash-flow forecasting, implementation of a treasury single account (TSA) and a process redesign to support automated cash management.

Imbert added that with shocks such as covid19 and supply-chain disruptions coming out of the Russia/Ukraine conflict and other shocks, government borrowing was an important tool that took the nation out of severe deficits, and was helpful in covering short-term imbalances between revenues and expenditures.

But he said it caused an increased debt-to-GDP ratio.

“To maintain a good debt-carrying capacity, the capability of several institutions such as the Debt Management Division, the Treasury Division and the Investments Division in the Ministry of Finance, as well as the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, have been strengthened to execute their role of monitoring and evaluating debt levels,” he said.

He said strengthening these institutions helped in reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio, and Government’s fiscal consolidation initiatives and revenue-enhancing policies, married with being discerning government spending, had resulted in debt trending downward from 90 per cent of GDP in 2021 to 70 per cent in 2022.

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Unemployed persons interested in working in the tourism industry are being encouraged to take advantage of free certification that is being offered through the Job Readiness Programme.

The programme is being implemented by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) in collaboration with the HEART/NSTA Trust and American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI). It is aimed at attracting between 5,000 and 6,000 persons for training and certification.

Interested persons are invited to register online at www.tef.gov.jm/job-readiness to participate in the three-day programme, which will be conducted face-to-face across the island in facilities owned and operated by the HEART/NSTA Trust, and at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

Director, Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation, TEF, Carol Rose Brown, said the Job Readiness Programme will address several issues, including industry knowledge, hospitality, how to deliver service effectively, cultural information, professionalism, health and safety, and customer service.

“So, this course will envelop all these things and at the end of it, you will be examined (and) you will have a certificate if you are successful in job readiness,” said Brown.

She further indicated that participants will have the opportunity to choose whether they want to be in the customer service segment of tourism or food safety.

“When you choose, you will be able to get that certification. So, you will end up with a certificate from HEART/NSTA Trust, as well as a certificate from the AHLEI,” she added.

The programme, which got under way on November 14, is expected to end during the first week of December.

Brown said it is anticipated that the participants will eventually gain employment.

“We are committed to placing them in front of employers, and helping them navigate that space to get those jobs,” she indicated.

For more information, persons are being asked to connect with the TEF on all its social media platforms.

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File photo: Senator Hazel Thompson-Ahye

INDEPENDENT Senator Hazel Thompson-Ahye said the very future of TT depended on the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Finance and Legal Affairs “getting it right” in examining concerns over the enactment of the partly-proclaimed Public Procurement and Disposal of Property Act 2015. She chaired a JSC virtual sitting on Friday which examined Procurement Regulator Moonilal Lalchan plus Ministry of Finance permanent secretary Jennifer Lutchman.

The senator said the public was viewing the “very, very, very important” sitting, with a keen interest in things being done properly,

“The future of our country, our citizens, depends on us getting it right.”

In her closing remarks two hours later she reiterated, “This is an extremely important act of Parliament and our very lives and livelihoods depend on us getting it right.”

Lalchan said a study found 10-30 per cent of a country’s spending was lost due to corruption, which for 20 per cent of $26 billion spent in TT equated to $5.2 billion.

“Think what we could do for the country – health care, schooling and infrastructure.

“We are in a good place to get the act proclaimed.”

He said the few outstanding issues were the act’s regulations, exempted services and the operationalising of a review board.

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh asked if the act would cover every recipient of public monies via a state grant or pension.

Lalchan replied that a strict reading of the law would suggest that, but however added, “We are dealing with procurement.”

Saying the OPR’s focus was not on individuals who get grants for things like flood relief, he said,”We don’t believe that’s the intention.”

Deyalsingh asked about “busy bodies” who might stymie the procurement system by judicial review and lawsuits reaching the Privy Council.

Lalchan assured, “Challenge proceedings are very restricted.”

Deyalsingh feared the act creating possible delays in his acquisition of life-saving equipment for patients in public hospitals. Lalchan replied, “The act shall not apply to medical emergencies.”

He hoped the act could be used as “a catalyst to change the society.”

Lalchan said someone may visit the OPR office to lodge a complaint or alternatively remain anonymous by using the OPR’s whistle blowing facility, administered by an organisation reassuringly located outside of TT. “It’s literally a Chinese wall,” he said of the whistle-blowing mechanism.

Thompson-Ahye said Lalchan was “well-prepared, armed and straining at the bit”, but asked his views on the judiciary’s concerns about the act.

He replied that regarding the OPR’s evidence gathering, the office would first ask a public body for information. Next, the OPR would not use any big stick but must apply to a judge in chambers for a court order to seek information. Lalchan said, “So there’s protection in the legislation to prevent an abuse of power by the OPR.”

Of the possibility of too many complainants overwhelming the law courts, he said any objection to a OPR decision first goes through the OPR, then to the Review Board and only then to the court if still required by that stage. Saying the OPR had held 325 consultations with stakeholders, he reckoned no more talks were needed.

“We need to get the act proclaimed; see how it works.” He said if any requests were then made to amend the act, these could be compiled and addressed.

Lalchan remarked, “Success for the OPR is not about how many people are behind bars; It is about compliance with the act.”

OPR head of legal Lindy-Ann Mitchell, in reply to Deyalsingh, said the OPR’s rules of evidence with be based on a balance of probabilities, while challenge proceedings will be more informal than law court procedures.

JSC member Keith Scotland asked if it would be more prudent to address the judiciary’s concerns before proclaiming the act, to which Lalchan said the OPR addressed all concerns.Scotland asked about any empirical study in TT (on corruption losses), but Lalchan said without full proclamation the OPR couldn’t track those statistics. He said the Prime Minister in January noted a need to make a severe dent in white collar crime, by digital transformation.

Replying to Scotland, Lalchan anticipated input from Attorney General Reginald Armour.

Deyalsingh asked if named charity getting State help could only hire a handyman registered at the OPR. Lalchan said yes. Thompson-Ahye asked if that provision protected the public from shoddy work, to which Lalchan replies yes.

The JSC questioned Finance Ministry officials on the readiness of state enterprises for the act’s proclamation.

Lutchman couldn’t say how many entities had their procurement processes examined by the ministry’s Central Audit Committee.

Thompson-Ahye said she now detected “a sense of hesitation” unlike that ministry’s previous enthusiasm, saying, “I’m perplexed.”

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