Principal of the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic, Hector Belle and SJPP automotive student and WorldSkills Barbados overall winner Akeil Craig-Browne, accepted the commemorative Broken Trident, as it journeyed to the SJPP.
New and continuing students at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP) have been advised that they should not waste the educational opportunities they are now presented with and that they should seek ways in which they can contribute to their country Barbados.
Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones delivered the key snippets of advice, as he delivered the keynote address during a ceremony held in the SJPP’s auditorium, to herald the visit of the commemorative Broken Trident.
Recalling that years ago students went to school without shoes, applied patches to the one pants they had and drank water to sustain themselves at school before they could return home to partake of a meal, Jones encouraged the students to recognise the advantage they now have over those who went before. He also cautioned them against having the wrong focus, such as acquiring brand name items, when the focus should be on taking in all the knowledge they can.
“I know of boys who sometimes became shame, because other boys were without shoes, they were bare footed. So in order to mix with the group, they took of their shoes,” he recalled.
“We didn’t make noise for Sprayground (brand name) bags. They cost US$12 to produce (but) we pay $400 and $250 and $300 (for these bags) and if mommy can’t give a secondary school child one, mouth push up as long as the house,” he observed.
“There was a time when we made our own school bags, beautiful, out of dungaree, stitched them nicely with a long strap and a flap. We made them. We were creative and we went to school in circumstances where there were no school meals. People ate things that they shouldn’t eat… that is what some people did to survive, because there were others who didn’t have the two cents or the penny to do that. They went and they stuck their hand under the pipe and they drank some water until they got home to eat what we would call in our village, steam food, some yam, sweet potato, some green bananas and some salt fish with some soft dumplings,” Jones pointed out.
“What I am appealing for is not to waste opportunities. Shelter under the flag. Shelter with the Broken Trident held high or clasped to you breast, in recognition of the work and the suffering of those who have gone before. The ladder which you now climb was built by somebody else. You now have to extend the ladder further,” the Minister told SJPP students. (RSM)
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