President of Howard University, Trinidadian Wayne Frederick, yesterday pledged to improve the teaching and learning environment at his alma-mater St Mary’s College (CIC) in a bid to encourage further academic excellence.
Briefly addressing the student body as the school’s administrative team proudly presented this year’s 12 scholarship winners at the school hall on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain, Frederick sought to highlight inefficiencies in the education system as he said that teachers in T&T were underpaid and under-appreciated.
The 17th president of Howard University, Washington, DC, USA, praised the local education system as he said: “Trinidad has one of the greatest education systems in the world.”
However, he added that while that was a global situation, here in T&T, the situation was very apparent.
He said: “When you look at the future of our nation, it’s the youths that are our future. Part of their development is education and teachers are primarily responsible for that.
“I think one of the things we must do is invest in that, by making sure we pay them appropriately but also, by making sure we just appreciate them.”
A recipient of the local education system until his graduation from Advanced Level classes in 1988, Fredrick urged all the students to seize the opportunity before them to acquire both academic and personal development skills.
Admitting that achieving academic excellence was not an easy feat, Frederick said it required lots of discipline, self-regulation, commitment and dedication but that the end reward often justified the hard work.
Allowing the students a brief insight into the struggles he faced as a child suffering with sickle cell anaemia, Frederick credited his entry into Howard University as the vehicle which helped him to better understand and manage the disease which had significantly affected him as a young child and teenager.
Praising his mother for her dedication to ensuring he enjoyed as normal a childhood as possible, Frederick said she was a nurse who would often work double shifts, to ensure she could spend as much time in the hospital with him. Admitting that he has now learnt to manage successfully his condition, Frederick acknowledged the efforts by his secondary school teachers to make sure he was not left behind academically.
Among the eight new inductees into the school’s Hall of Fame during a ceremony on the weekend, Frederick said he was overjoyed to reconnect with some of the teachers who had taught him during his time at the school.
In an effort to improve the education system, Frederick said he and his wife were committed to making a difference at CIC.
During his remarks Frederick urged the students to dedicate and commit themselves to their academic studies by exercising discipline and building life-long friendships as they strived for success in life.
2015 Scholarship winners
• Che Richards
—Languages—Open.
• Jonathan Bharath
—Mathematics—Open.
• Nabeel Hosein
—Mathematics—Open.
• Kyle Nigel Smith
—Technology Studies
—Open.
• Simon Granger
—Environmental Studies
—National.
• Abhai Lal
—Mathematics—National.
• Christian Ammon
—Mathematics—National.
• Adrian Pujudas
—Natural Science—National.
• Jaime Lee Young
—Natural science
—National.
• Jean Luc Francois
—Natural Science—National.
• Jihan Raghoo
—Natural science—National.
• Joshua Allum
—Natural Science—National.