Taking the educational sector forward, involving all stakeholders is the aim of Zorisha Hackett, the new THA Secretary of Education, Research and Technology.

On the Tobago Updates morning show on social media, Hackett, an educator herself, outlined her goals: "to create a more technologically advanced division, and the goal is also to create an avenue where Tobago no longer lags behind when it comes to education in terms of the zones, the zones we have in the country – always lagging behind.”

That, she said, has to come with some curriculum change.

“Every four years you have someone new, and what I think does not happen is...that that person, in the form of a secretary, doesn’t come into the division and share the policy. It isn’t anywhere in black and white, it isn’t infiltrated or disseminated to the staff and the persons who are also stakeholders, and so if they don’t know, they’re just following blindly.”

She said she intends to sit down with her staff – everyone who is around her and supportive of her in the division for a conversation, to examine the policy, set realistic deadlines and we work towards them.

"If everyone knows what the end game is, then having buy-in won’t be difficult.”

She added: “I can’t be coming from that place and not be empathetic. But I also want us to focus on even the staff at the division, because some of the issues we face, they also face – contracts and so on, job specs – duties, role and responsibilities. It’s an overhaul of the entire system and I just want us to move forward in that direction together. It has to be a collective effort: no one person can wave a magic wand and fix it overnight.”

Addressing her former colleagues directly, she said, “Teachers at every level, I hear your cries, I’ve been there.”

She said so far, the support is there,

“I’ve been getting it all around from staff, from teachers.”

The post THA Education Secretary 'ready to take sector forward' appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.