Schools are closed today as the country prepares for the arrival of a potential cyclone.

This morning at 5am the system was said to be 680 kilometers east of Trinidad.

The system was moving towards the west near 23 miles per hour.

The MET Service says on the forecast track, the system will pass near or over portions of the Southern Windward Islands tonight.

As a result, Trinidad and Tobago remains under a tropical storm warning.

The Ministry of Education says all primary schools are closed and so too secondary schools, which do not have CAPE examinations today.

CAPE exams will be conducted as scheduled.

Principals are to inform teaching and non-teaching staff essential to the examinations that they are to report for duty.

All other teaching and non-teaching staff is asked to remain at home.

All agencies and systems have been activated.

Last evening, the head of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management, Major General Rodney Smart cautioned members of the public.

And the Chief Secretary says Tobago is ready for the severe adverse weather system, which is expected to impact the country tonight.

Addressing an emergency news conference yesterday Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said the island is ready.

He called for people to remain calm.

And director of the Tobago Emergency Management Agency Allan Stewart said the island had been this way before.