Education Minister Anthony Garcia has indicated his willingness to meet with the relevant stakeholders to discuss improvements to the ministry’s textbook rental/loan programme.
Commenting briefly during the opening ceremony of the Ministry of Education Tower, St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Garcia said: “I am always available to all our stakeholders and very happy to meet with them when they desire.”
His indication to meet comes one day after officials of the Book Industry Organisation of T&T (BIOTT) requested a meeting with Garcia to discuss how the programme could be improved after the minister raised concerns about textbooks bearing school stamps were being sold by second-hand booksellers in Port-of-Spain.
BIOTT officials hope a meeting will be held soon as five previous requests for such meetings have gone unanswered.
Repeating his earlier claims that Cabinet had decided to do a ten per cent “top-up” of textbooks for the upcoming academic year as there were excess textbooks in the system, Garcia assured each child would receive the required textbooks in time for when classes started next term.
During last week’s post-Cabinet briefing, Garcia claimed to have knowledge of textbooks being offered for sale by second-hand booksellers.
Garcia has since been assured by National Security Minister Edmund Dillon that a police investigation would be conducted into how the books ended up on the streets.
Contacted yesterday, BIOTT president Rico Charran said he was heartened by the minister’s willingness to meet with all stakeholders.
They too joined with Garcia as they agreed that a speedy resolution to the investigation was needed.
Charran said his members supplied textbooks based on invoice orders from the ministry.
He said textbooks bearing a school stamp was a clear confirmation the books were delivered to the respective school.
Charran said the ministry had to review its internal accounting processes as that was one way to determine if and how textbooks were being sold.