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Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Gadsby-Dolly says Education Ministry staff still grieving for Lisa

by

KAY-MARIE FLETCHER
25 days ago
20250125
Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Simone William, seated left, Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, centre, and Permanent Secretary Jacquelin Charles, alongside principals and students, pose for a picture at a school recognition ceremony at the ministry’s St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain offices yesterday.

Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Simone William, seated left, Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, centre, and Permanent Secretary Jacquelin Charles, alongside principals and students, pose for a picture at a school recognition ceremony at the ministry’s St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain offices yesterday.

ROGER JACOB

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

Staff mem­bers and of­fi­cials at the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion are still mourn­ing the death of Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, but there is un­cer­tain­ty if her role—as Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion—will be re­lin­quished when a new gov­ern­ment is in­stalled. Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly ad­mit­ted that the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry is a huge re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for one min­is­ter to tend to, but could not say whether an­oth­er min­is­ter will be ap­point­ed if the PNM wins the up­com­ing elec­tion.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry’s head of­fice in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day af­ter the Schools’ Recog­ni­tion Cer­e­mo­ny for se­lect­ed pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary in­sti­tu­tions, Gads­by-Dol­ly said, “This min­istry is a huge min­istry. We have two per­ma­nent sec­re­taries and Min­is­ter Mor­ris-Ju­lian was very valu­able in as­sist­ing go­ing for­ward. That is up to the Prime Min­is­ter if he wants to ap­point some­one at this stage. Look at where we are in the elec­tion cy­cle, so I’m not sure if some­one else is go­ing to be ap­point­ed, that’s up to the Prime Min­is­ter. But, cer­tain­ly, the work of the min­istry has gone on be­cause we have all ad­just­ed to bear­ing the load.”

Gads­by-Dol­ly al­so said it’s been dif­fi­cult deal­ing with Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s death. The D’Abadie/O’Meara MP died on De­cem­ber 16, last year along with her el­dest and youngest chil­dren dur­ing a fire at their Ari­ma house.

“It is al­ways a se­ri­ous loss. Even to­day when I came in, I sat and I said ‘Lisa is not here’ and this is some­thing that we would have dis­cussed. All these pro­grammes, she would have been so hap­py to see that we’re at this point. It is a very sad thing, we con­tin­ue to pray for the fam­i­ly be­cause I can­not imag­ine how they feel. We know how we feel, so far less for them.

“So, it’s been a dif­fi­cult and sad sit­u­a­tion. We did of­fer coun­selling through­out the min­istry and every­one who want­ed to avail them­selves of it was able to do that. And we’re hap­py to do that. I, my­self, thank God I have a good sup­port sys­tem, so I would have had my fam­i­ly, co-work­ers and so on, so we would have been able to com­men­su­rate and car­ry each oth­er through,” Gads­by-Dol­ly said.

Asked if she want­ed an­oth­er chance at be­ing the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter, she said she had more to of­fer when it comes to pub­lic ser­vice.

“It’s all in God’s hands, all in God’s hands. But, I do think that as a cit­i­zen I have en­joyed my pub­lic ser­vice in this coun­try. It has not been an easy road. It’s not easy but it’s very valu­able work and I think I have more to of­fer. Where I do that and how I do that, that’s re­al­ly up to God and I have not set plans that it has to be this or it has to be some­thing else, but God will lead.”

Guardian Me­dia al­so reached out to Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to find out if her par­ty wins the elec­tion, if she would ap­point two min­is­ters in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion. How­ev­er, there was no re­sponse up to late yes­ter­day evening.


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