Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Education set forth an actions plan called Vision2020, where the primary goal is to create an educational system for students to be confident, creative and productive users of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as early as possible for a lifelong learning.

          In 1999, Inter-American Development Bank approved a US$100 million loan to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for the Secondary Education Modernization Program.

A comprehensive program that addresses the following:

•      Improvement of the quality of education through measures addressing the curriculum, teaching and learning strategies, TPD and other elements

•      Increased equity in education through construction of the new secondary schools and upgrades to the  existing school facilities

•       Strengthening of the capacity of educational institutions

•       Studies and other measures to improve the sector performance

School Access to ICT (Stage 4)

          School Access to the ICT started back in 1984 when four Macintosh Computers where place in thirty-five secondary schools.  Between 1998 and 1999, there were 1120 additional computers placed into the educational systems.  An ICT refresh programs called Fast Forward launched in 2006, it distributed around 7000 computers just to the primary schools, to update and replace non-functional and maintenance challenged computers, ensuring that all schools have latest equipment. 

          All government sponsored Secondary schools under the fast forward initiative, received thirty-four computers each and additionally the secondary schools were provided selected number of Computers on carts with the wireless connectivity for use within the class room environment.  All secondary schools have dial-up and ADSL access for broadband connectively and some are pushing into fiber networks.

           As of today, the different levels of education from primary, secondary, and tertiary all have access to the multiple computers; despite that the current levels of ICT access and use are not adequate.  Service contracts and warranties are not being completed fast enough to continue daily usage of these computers, causing shortage and reduction in the use of ICT in schools.  Most ICT resources were funded by the oil companies like Amoco and Shell in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. The illustration below lists the number of government schools in the Trinidad and Tobago, median enrollment in these schools, and their ICT profile.

Enhancing Education with ICT (Stage3, approaching stage 4)

          Driving this area of focus from its current phase of stage 3, quickly pushing its way to stage 4 with the education enhancements with the use of ICT, are incentives like possible increases to salary and free tuitions for the teachers to take the ICT professional development programs.  Between years of 1998 and 2001, because of the high demand for ICT classes and teachers who lacked proper computer skills to include ICT in their courses, the Ministry of Education trained around 3000 teachers, now more than half of the secondary teachers have acquired the ICT skills.

         At the current level of stage 3, In-service teachers are given an opportunity which is sponsored by the government to take part in the full or part training in ICT using their class rooms.  Teachers are trained to use the technology in classroom and in developing multimedia learning resources for their courses to incorporate e-learning activities for the students.

          There are some issues with reaching stage 4 because of the lack tools like digital cameras, multimedia projectors, and some cases internet connectively.  Teachers are not involved in the ICT implementation in schools. Outdated functional resources are replaced instead of allowing other teachers and students to utilize them for other subjects beyond the computer science and information technology.

Developing the ICT Workforce (Stage 4)

          Trinidad and Tobago reached a stage 4 – in developing the ICT workforce.  Teachers are able to purchase home computers using government subsidy for additional training.  Students are able to participate in distance learning courses.  The Ministry of Education is putting particular emphasis on building an export-oriented software and ICT services industry and wants to attract local and multinational ICT companies by planning to build a science and technology park.

           The University of Trinidad and Tobago and University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre both have opened satellite location campuses around the island. University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre having six locations, were each campus offers an online admissions process for the ICT training programs.  In 2006, The Ministry of Education, opened the  National Open School of Trinidad and Tobago providing  distance learning  which includes the ICT skills development and certification , additionally there are also low quality ICT training institutes that have open up to deal with increasing demand for ICT education.  Following illustration shows the road to a knowledge-based society taken by the Trinidad and Tobago.