by Connice Trimmingham

The Solidarity In Action Inc Company and Car Park hopes the scholarships they award will motivate students to excel in school.

Director Joy Mathews, in her opening remarks at the scholarship presentation ceremony last Friday, told the students that their performance in school is critical to gaining and maintaining a scholarship.{{more}}

Mathews said Solidarity Inc sees education as important and aims to “alleviate some of the pressure off the parents to fund the children through secondary school.”

She advised the recipients to set goals and devise ways to achieve them.

“Organize your study time and chose your friends wisely; if you feel your friends are distracting you, then they are not your friends.”

Deputy chair Noel Jackson, addressing students’ performance, stressed that the scholarship money cannot be wasted.

“We cannot be spending the Solidarity Inc hard earned money and we are not seeing any prospect of persons excelling.”

Jackson urged the parents to be engaged in their children’s school work, which he stated is not only the responsibility of teachers. He said that the parents have an important role to play which would determine their children’s performances. He also advised the recipients to grab the opportunity tightly and make good use of it.

Jackson also made it clear that reading cannot be overlooked on the pathway to success and encouraged them to read.

“One of the problems we are having with our students and performance is reading. We cannot over emphasize the importance of reading to success. My motto is READ and when you fed up read…READ again!”

He commended the students who had performed well and encouraged the poor performers to push harder to better their grades.

He informed them that residents of this country are becoming more educated, which means that getting a job is now more competitive.

“The new norm is that ‘A’ level students are doing the work that a school drop-out used to …. We have to start thinking about a degree or PhD.”

Scholarships of $1,200 each were given to Rheana S Thomas and Joshua E John, while three bursaries of $500 each were presented to Tshani George, Rick Hunte and Nigel Charles. Three students: Dyke A Adams, Brion A Jacobs and Cody Laidlow received educational assistance in the form of a $50 book loan scheme allowance.(CT)