Ollivierre: NDP laid strong foundation in education

The achievements in education today would have not been possible if the New Democratic Party had not laid a strong foundation in earlier years.{{more}}

This sentiment was expressed by opposition Parliamentary Representative Terrance Ollivierre during his presentation in Parliament on Thursday, January 12, 2012.

Ollivierre stated that the New Democratic Party (NDP) had not only laid a strong foundation, but made significant strides in all facets of the education system, from early childhood, primary, secondary, to post secondary education.

Ollivierre, quoting from an article written by CXC Registrar Didacus Jules in the UWI Pelican, stated that the article reported that over the past twenty years, great progress has been made to provide access to secondary education.

Ollivierre added that the article provided statistical information which stated that St Vincent and the Grenadines moved from 37 per cent in the 1980s up to 82 per cent in 2000, in terms of persons accessing secondary education.

“This has proven that in no doubt, during that period, that the New Democratic Party were working to ensure that you had improved intake in all levels and much of the movement of secondary education happened under the New Democratic Party administration,” Ollivierre added.

Ollivierre further stated that it was the NDP administration who recognized that the increased intake of persons into secondary schools meant the need for more teachers.

“The same NDP government recognized that with increased intake at all levels of the education system you must have the quality and the amount of teachers to back up what you were doing. During that period, in the late 80s to early 90s, you had the intake of teachers at the Teachers’ College more than doubled,” Ollivierre said.

Ollivierre continued, stating that because of the efforts of the NDP, there was at that time an increased intake of Vincentians on campuses of the University of the West Indies.

“It did not stop at a college education, but went on to ensure that the economic cost for all Vincentians who wanted to go to the University of the West Indies were paid and that was not done before… there had been an increase in the intake on all of the UWI campuses, because of the New Democratic Party, because of the policy of the New Democratic Party ensuring that even the poor persons had the opportunity to enter the University of the West Indies,” Ollivierre explained, adding that the NDP recognized that in order to take the country forward, investment must be made in the young people.(OS)