PCTT urges holistic preparation as new academic year begins

The Pres­by­ter­ian Church of Trinidad and To­ba­go (PCTT) is call­ing on stu­dents, ed­u­ca­tors, par­ents, guardians and oth­er stake­hold­ers to en­sure chil­dren are pre­pared not on­ly aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, but al­so spir­i­tu­al­ly, men­tal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly, as the new aca­d­e­m­ic year be­gins.

In a mes­sage mark­ing the start of the 2026–2027 aca­d­e­m­ic year, the Mod­er­a­tor of the PCTT said those re­spon­si­ble for chil­dren have a “sa­cred re­spon­si­bil­i­ty” to care for them, pro­vide the nec­es­sary re­sources and pre­pare them for the chal­lenges of their ed­u­ca­tion­al jour­ney.

The Mod­er­a­tor said prepa­ra­tion for the school year should ex­tend be­yond en­sur­ing stu­dents have the re­quired books, ma­te­ri­als and oth­er tools.

“They are al­so re­quired to be spir­i­tu­al­ly, men­tal­ly, emo­tion­al­ly, and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly pre­pared,” the mes­sage stat­ed.

The church ac­knowl­edged that stu­dents may face chal­lenges with­in the school en­vi­ron­ment and said chil­dren must be equipped to deal with those dif­fi­cul­ties in ways that con­tribute to their de­vel­op­ment and the wider so­ci­ety.

The PCTT said the goal should be to nur­ture chil­dren in­to “strong, well-ad­just­ed, lov­ing, car­ing, and God-fear­ing in­di­vid­u­als”.

It al­so warned that be­ing in­ad­e­quate­ly pre­pared for a new school en­vi­ron­ment could con­tribute to the anx­i­ety and frus­tra­tion ex­pe­ri­enced by some chil­dren.

The Mod­er­a­tor used the start of the aca­d­e­m­ic year to re­mind stu­dents of what the church de­scribed as their re­la­tion­ship with God.

The mes­sage said God knows each per­son by name and views them as His own, while of­fer­ing guid­ance and sup­port through­out their lives.

The PCTT en­cour­aged stu­dents and those sup­port­ing them to ap­proach the new aca­d­e­m­ic year with this un­der­stand­ing, while seek­ing God's guid­ance through­out the jour­ney.

The church ex­tend­ed its bless­ings to stu­dents, ed­u­ca­tors, par­ents, guardians and oth­er stake­hold­ers as the aca­d­e­m­ic year runs from Sep­tem­ber 2026 to Ju­ly 2027.

The mes­sage con­clud­ed by high­light­ing what it de­scribed as two im­por­tant pil­lars on which life should be built: a good ed­u­ca­tion, which em­pow­ers in­di­vid­u­als for life, and a strong, un­shake­able God­ly foun­da­tion.

The PCTT said both el­e­ments have a role to play in prepar­ing young peo­ple to nav­i­gate their ed­u­ca­tion and their lives be­yond the class­room.