Get up, stand up for your rights!

22.JUN.07

EDITOR: A number of final year students from Dr J P Eustace Secondary School, who were disappointed about being denied the privilege of graduation after five years of hard work, protested outside their school and the Financial Complex on June 13, 2007.

When the SVG Green Party contacted the Ministry of Education about the graduation, the Ministry said that graduation is a privilege not a right.{{more}} When asked what the problem was, the principal at the school involved told SVG Green Party that some of the students were misled by disruptive elements. Also, because the students allegedly insulted members of the Ministry of Education and carried out a protest, there will be no graduation.

It is demoralising for this attitude to be displayed by the Ministry of Education. Many students have saved up money for this graduation and their five years of secondary education should be rewarded.

Since independence in 1979, governments, including the ULP regime, have poorly supported education. They have treated education as expenditure and not as an investment.

Students of SVG deserve a proper university, so they can all graduate from university too. At the moment, only the rich and a few chosen ones get to go to university and that has to be abroad. At present, the education system in SVG is structured to mainly benefit the children of the middle and upper classes. Children from poor and low-income families get left behind.

It is good to see students and young people standing up for their rights. SVG Green Party congratulates the students on carrying out a peaceful, but meaningful protest, in full obeyance of the law. They carry on a legacy and tradition of a great son of the Caribbean, Bob Marley: Get up, stand up; stand up for your rights.

SVG Green Party