Senior Reporter
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has urged teachers to send disruptive students home and leave parents to deal with them, signalling a zero-tolerance approach to indiscipline as schools reopen for the 2026/2027 academic year today.
In a strongly worded social media message yesterday, Persad-Bissessar called on teachers and principals to adopt a no-nonsense stance toward disrespectful and misbehaving students, as well as uncooperative parents and guardians.
“I strongly urge you to adopt a zero-tolerance policy to disrespectful and misbehaved students and parents. Don’t stress out yourselves trying to help persons who don’t want to be helped. If students refuse to behave properly and parents are ignoring your concerns, send them straight home and let them and their parents battle it out in their house,” Persad-Bissessar said.
“You are there to teach, mentor and protect those students willing to learn; you are not there to be abused, intimidated and harassed by any student or parent.”
The Prime Minister accompanied the message with an equally blunt warning to students, urging them to take their education seriously or risk facing a difficult future.
She also criticised those who tell young people that failing at school does not mean their lives are over.
“These same persons, while publicly giving you that advice, are privately giving their own children and grandchildren the same warnings about a difficult future without an education as I am giving you today. None of these glib people are going to lift a finger to help you when you complete schooling without an education and are struggling to earn a living,” she said.
Addressing students directly, Persad-Bissessar added: “Life is tough without an education. It will grind you down until you end up just surviving day to day and not actually living a satisfying, wholesome life. There will always be difficult days in life, but a good education gives you many options to navigate difficulty and overcome challenges to have a wonderful life.”
She encouraged students to attend classes regularly, remain disciplined, respect teachers and school staff, and take responsibility for their academic progress.
The Prime Minister also called on parents to play a more active role in their children’s upbringing and education.
“Know what they are learning, monitor their behaviour and progress, listen to their concerns and work closely with their teachers. Do not dump your parental responsibilities onto teachers; that is your job. You made your children. It is not the teachers’ or anyone else’s responsibility to mind them,” she said.
“Do your part now with your children so that in years to come, when they become adults, you won’t have to be at the courthouse in your old age trying to secure bail to get them released from incarceration.”
Persad-Bissessar’s remarks contrasted sharply with the more upbeat tone struck by Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath, who described the start of the new academic year as one of “excitement, possibilities and fresh opportunities.”
Dowlath highlighted the dedication of teachers, principals, school staff, parents and guardians, as well as the Government’s commitment to placing students at the centre of the education system. He also pointed to ongoing improvements in school infrastructure and efforts to create safer, more supportive learning environments where students can thrive.
Meanwhile, as families prepare for the new school year, many parents have taken to social media to complain that they are still waiting to receive their School Supplies and Book Grants.
Dowlath has defended the delayed distribution, noting that the Ministry of Education had just six weeks to verify 20,744 applications.
Speaking during a tour of schools on Friday ahead of today’s reopening, he said the number of grants increased by 744 this year and that approval for the programme was received in June. As of last Thursday, more than half of the grants, valued at over $10 million, had been distributed.
Dowlath also assured parents that students would not be penalised for returning to school without all of their required supplies.
