St. Clair Dacon celebrates 28 years

The students and staff of the St. Clair Dacon Secondary School celebrated the 28th anniversary of that institution’s existence last Monday, October 10.{{more}}

As the staff and students celebrated the event, there was the reminder to students that they are the custodians of the country’s future.

Delivering the feature address last Monday at the school, Wendell Edwards, former teacher and principal of the institution, said that the students are blossoming at a time when there are numerous societal problems.

“The presence and effects of HIV/AIDS, ill discipline and lack of respect for others, negative influences of foreign culture…and illegal drugs and weapons,” Edwards said.

“So often the negative things seem inviting and rewarding,” he added.

Students needed to however turn such negatives into positives, Edwards contended.

There was the tendency to blame others for what goes wrong in our lives, but according to Edwards, the students needed to begin focusing less on blaming others and focus on improving themselves.

Frederick Stephenson, Minister of National Mobilisation, Youth etc, in his presentation challenged the students to strive to do better.

Stephenson contended that too many students were not striving for better grades.

“When I was attending secondary school, grade three was a fail,” he said, adding that too many students were settling for the basics.

“You need to put in an extra effort to get higher grades,” the minister said, adding that the government was investing a lot of money to ensure that students in the country were given the opportunity to be well educated.

Stephenson also reminded teachers and parents of their responsibility.

“Teachers have a responsibility to encourage and help students to continue to develop; parents also have that responsibility, they cannot leave you up to the teachers alone,” Stephenson said.

There were too many cases of neglect Stephenson contended, but they (parents) need to do their work.

According to the minister, there were instances where parents would own two or three cellular phones, while their children did not have the items they needed for school.

“We need to speak these things more honestly,” Stephenson said.

Government will continue to work with parents, however, he said; particularly through a parenting programme which is expected to begin in the country soon. (DD)