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Good practice Imported

AI-Powered Digital Textbooks with Avatar Tutors for Trinidad and Tobago Secondary Students

Trinidad and Tobago · Moruga · See the Trinidad and Tobago profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 95% 20/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Education has launched offline-capable AI digital textbooks with guiding avatars for Form 1 Mathematics and English, built for accessibility and expanding to four more subjects by August 2026, saving parents up to TT$1,500 a year.

TT$1,000–1,500 TT$/year
Parental savings on textbooks per year (Forms One–Two)
2 subjects (Mathematics, English)
Subjects live at launch (April 2026)
4 subjects (Science, IT, Social Studies, Spanish)
Additional subjects planned by August 2026 (by August 2026)
3 years
Planned expansion timeline to all secondary and primary levels

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Ministry of Education, Trinidad and Tobago
Period
Launched April 2026
Keywords
secondary education, digital textbooks, accessibility, EdTech

Context

Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Education, under Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath, launched AI-assisted digital textbooks at Moruga Secondary School on 21 April 2026, starting with two subjects — Mathematics and English — for Form One students, with Science, Information Technology, Social Studies and Spanish due to follow by August 2026.

Objectives

The initiative aims to cut household textbook costs, extend study access to students without reliable internet, and make secondary learning materials accessible to students with visual and hearing impairments.

Activities

Each subject pairs two digital textbooks with a guiding AI avatar that walks students through lessons, answers questions and includes instructional videos. The textbooks run online or offline on government-distributed laptops, so students without reliable internet access can still study, and the platform is designed to be accessible to students with visual and hearing impairments.

Results

The Ministry projects that Form One and Form Two parents will save between TT$1,000 and TT$1,500 a year on textbook purchases, and plans to extend AI textbooks to all secondary levels and into primary schools within three years.

Conclusions

As the programme is only weeks old, no independent evidence of learning gains exists yet; the evidence here is in the concrete accessibility design and financial-savings commitment, not in measured outcomes.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
Ministry of Education, Trinidad and Tobago, Office of Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath, EdTech platform/avatar-tutor developer (unnamed vendor)

Conditions for success

  • Existing government-distributed laptops enabling offline access
  • Accessible design for students with visual and hearing impairments
  • Phased subject rollout (Mathematics/English first, four more subjects by August 2026)

Common failure modes

  • Programme only weeks old at time of review — no independent evidence of learning gains yet
  • Three-year expansion plan to all secondary and primary levels is unproven

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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