Take from this what you will, but although I support teachers getting more pay and benefits, I support the additional subjects/workshops (though not at their own or any students' expense). In the U.S. students are required by law to write national exams every year from 2nd grade (equivalent to probably Standard 2) in Math, English, and Science. I believe they've introduced Social Studies separately as well. Regardless of the students' performances in class and their classroom grades, any students who fail these yearly national exams are prohibited from moving on to the next grade (not a very common thing). There is no rush for special test prep, students are usually not made aware until a few weeks before to prepare, and the pass rate is usually average-above average. Of course, they still have normal classroom exams, homework, and projects throughout the school year with no changes during this exam time. By middle school or junior high, students must be academically prepared (from elementary school) to take the mandatory 5 subjects minimum (English, Math, Social Studies, Science, and a foreign language) in addition to any two electives minimum that are assigned to them which can include cooking, art, band, string orchestra, chorus, dance, drama, physical education (which is now mandatory), debate, peer mediation, etc. That means students should have enough prior exposure to and understanding of these subjects BEFORE leaving elementary schools. Another big difference though is that instead of writing one huge national exam to leave primary school, students have to be tested (in specialized schools also interviewed) for EACH school they wish to try for (no lessons or special prep for this either).
I think Trinidad's level of education has been lacking for a very long time and encouraging more education from primary school onwards is a very good step to take. I think though that teachers should either do workshops during holidays or weekends, or if it must be done during the students' school day, adequate substitutes should be put in place beforehand with instructions of work to be done. Before anyone says that's so unfair, teachers should be left alone to teach comfortably! I agree, but the fact remains that the world is constantly changing, we are all in a never-ending learning process and information (especially that is being taught to the future leaders of tomorrow) needs to updated as often as we learn new things, old methods may be replaced or altered by new, improved methods, and while I understand that teachers are tired of dealing with boisterous children, uncooperative parents, and the government poking its nose around to change up all the hard work that went into their lesson prep, at the end of the day we all want what's best for the children and the more we can do to give them better than a somewhat standard third world country education, the better everyone comes out. Improving our standard of education is a huge step forward in my book, however inconveniencing it may be. I think these workshops and updates should be expected as part of the teaching profession. Instead of cutting down on it, more focus should be placed on increasing the benefits to compensate teachers for going through all this for the benefit of their students, and they should be told about all this upfront and recognized accordingly for their hard work.
