The Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth Affairs, Fisheries and Agriculture will be administering the next SAT Examination on Saturday, March 14 at the Elmore Stoutt High School Campus located at the old Clarence Thomas Building.

Minister for Education, Culture, Youth Affairs, Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr. The Honourable Natalio D. Wheatley, is said to have had a successful tour of  several educational institutions in Hertfordshire and Essex Counties in the United Kingdom.

Minister for Education Dr. the Honourable Natalio Wheatley has said that the opportunity to network with fellow Education Ministers at the Fifth Education Ministers Action Group Meeting in London was particularly timely and beneficial with education reform being one of his key priorities.

Students of the Joyce Samuel Primary School (JSPS) are the recipients of books from the BVI National Commission for UNESCO as part of an initiative with Reading Room VI’s team of volunteers.

Mister Speaker, placing Virgin Islanders at the centre of development activities through expanding access to educational opportunities continues to be a central focus of this Government’s agenda. The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) continues to expand its offerings through various Memoranda of Understanding. Today I am pleased to give a statement on three recent programmes in which the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) has been engaged.

Mr. Speaker, last year, I announced my intention to examine the additional year of instruction in our public secondary schools, with the intention of deciding whether it would continue.  Mr. Speaker, I held public meetings, which yielded useful feedback on the topic.  I was able to confirm that, indeed, there were students in the system who benefitted from the additional year as well as students who were being held back by the additional year.

Minister Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on some education matters. The main areas of focus during our professional development sessions is physical literacy for all and critical literacy.  To promote physical literacy, Sports for Life Team and the BVI Olympic Committee graciously donated physical education equipment to the schools. I express my sincere appreciation to their generous donations.  In addition to the training that took place in August and November 2019, the final training is scheduled for 4^th – 15^th May, 2020. We also held our annual Excellence in Teaching workshops for teachers on Tortola and Virgin Gorda also as a part of on-going professional development.

Two local institutions in the Virgin Islands were gifted with gardening equipment and supplies as a result of their similar requests to an Honourable Member.