St. George’s, Grenada, July 9th 2010:
The Executive and members of the New
National Party wishes to extend to all the students who graduated from different
levels of the education system continued success in their future endeavours.
To the students who have earned a place
at the Secondary School level through the Common Entrance Examination, we salute
you. You are now about to begin a new level in your education. The success of
your secondary level education is dependent on your diligence, hard-work and
discipline. Remember that the use you make of the next five years would
determine your future.
To the graduates of the Secondary
Schools, we extend warmest congratulations to you on having completed five years
of secondary education. We pray that you would be satisfied with the results of
your hard-work.
Many of you would be preparing to enter
the tertiary level institutions. We hope that you would be given the opportunity
to do so. Some would be seeking employment or engage in self-employment. We urge
you to continue to educate yourself since education is a life-long process. You
must do all in your power to make yourself marketable and to take your rightful
place in this very competitive job market. We also salute the University
graduates and hope that you will use your energies to help develop and advance
this nation.
We applaud the efforts of the dedicated
and hard-working teachers in our school system. You have shown great strength,
patience and love in your role as teacher, and very often, as parents in
nurturing the children in your care. The NNP extend highest praise to you. We
hope that parents and guardians will continue to work in partnership with you so
as to help lift the educational standards in our country.
As we look at the large number of youths
leaving the secondary and tertiary institutions - added to those of past years -
we urge Government to expand the available opportunity to afford those young
people access to training. We suggest that there is space in our Secondary
schools or even in some of our primary schools to develop the environment to
cater to the young people who cannot afford the high cost of travel in order
attend TAMCC.
We sincerely think that Government must
look again at the assistance given to students. The decision to provide school
books to all students is not enough to cater to the children of the poor and
vulnerable in the society. Books are an absolute necessity in the learning
process but of even greater importance is ensuring that the students are able to
get to school. The need for uniform and transportation to get to school is of
even greater importance to the children of the large number of unemployed
parents in Grenada today. Government must be prepared to invest in the education
of the children and youth of our Nation in order to help secure a brighter
future for everyone.
