Georgetown, Guyana – (October, 9 2015) Education month 2015 activities came to an end earlier today, with a grand rally at the National Park, following a route march from Parade Ground on Middle Street to the National Park, by teachers, students and administrative staff of the Ministry of Education. President David Granger, at the rally, delivered the main discourse, reminding children, teachers and other stakeholders of the importance of an educated nation.
“We are here today because education is the gate way to that good life. Education is the mother of good jobs; education is the mother of employment; education is the mother of enterprise,” President Granger said. Using the proverbial saying, “children are the future”, President Granger told the large gathering, that since youths are important citizens, it is critical for his administration make resources available, to enable them to take the country forward.
However, while the administration has their role to play, the President pointed out that it is also imperative for children and parents to play their role in the education system. “I have some very simple rules, and that is respect for each other. We are a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society. Respect for each other and respect for self; it starts at home,” the President said.
The children in attendance were reminded that if they go into a school system with the basic values of loving self, respecting self and loving others then learning would be made easy. “We may look different, but what matters is not the color of our skin but what’s inside of our head and I believe if people learn to respect each other, we will have fewer problems in school,” the President asserted.
The second rule President Granger reiterated is the need for every school aged child to be in school. He noted that way too many children have been dropping out of school, even as the government has been seeking to put measures in place to keep children in school. “Every child must go to school. Primary education is compulsory, but too frequently we hear that children in some area don’t get a chance to go to school,” he added.
The President also underscored the importance of technology being incorporated into the education system as this he noted is critical to ensuring that students are on par with the information and communication technological age we are in.
Meanwhile, as Education Minister Dr. Rupert Roopnarine delivered his remarks, he made a call for all stakeholders to recommit to strengthening the local education system. “As we close off the activities of education month and get down to the business of putting in place the policies directives we have assigned ourselves. Let us recommit for their sake, to planting the seeds of tolerance, of knowledge, of love, of mutual respect this is our sacred duty to the next generation and generations to come,” the Minister said.
The Minister stressed, that the education system must accept, as a critical mandate, quality education on environmental matters. As educators and policy makers, he added, the primary responsibility is to create such a culture. “We must seek to cultivate in our children respect and reverence for the natural environment. Climate change is threatening to replace war as the leading source of human misery and under development all over the world. The global consensus is that it is the direct result of human action,” Dr. Roopnarine said.
The Education Minister also spoke of the importance of respect for people and their culture as he noted that this is an imperative quality that must be incorporation into the education system.
“No natural eco-system can sustainably exist with one component excluding each other, and no human society can sustainably exist, much less thrive, with one culture or ethnic group creating and maintaining domination over another,” he added.
Education month 2015 was celebrated under the theme, “Quality leadership: Improving schools from within”.
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