The Education Plan is really coming together

05.SEPT.08

Editor: I could not allow the achievements of our young people in the area of education to go without expressing my feelings of happiness and congratulations to all those students, teachers and parents who have worked very hard over the years to ensure this success. When the universal access to secondary education was introduced under the “Education Revolution” I could still remember some of the negative comments then.{{more}} Thanks to leadership with vision today hundreds of our youths are going off to university and we are more than on our way of building our human capacity to confront the challenges ahead and to sustain the type of economic development we want to achieve by 2020.

As I sit back and look at the success in education in terms of increases in passes, construction of schools and Vincentians pursuing higher level education, and when I link this to the efforts of achieving our international airport and the efforts to diversify our economy all in just seven years, I could only think of the Cuban people 50 years ago. 50 years ago when Fidel Castro put forward his vision for the Cuban people, there were many who could not see or believe in his vision however, today Cuba has one of the most literate societies, a first class health system and major developments in the area of medicine just to name a few, achievements for which most first world countries could only dream of but will never see in our lifetime. I draw this parallel to say those who can see the vision must spend time with those who can’t share the vision because it is only with time and the efforts of all Vincentians can our vision for 2020 be realized.

We have plenty work ahead, and if we double our efforts we could see the fruits of our labour multiplying. We must celebrate our successes however we must review all areas of our progress to diagnose all areas of weaknesses and develop the necessary strategies for corrective measures. Our development goals for 2020 could be achieved but it all depends on us, remember not only do we want to achieve these developmental goals 2020, but we must ensure that our people are well developed, our systems are strong and the right learning environment culture is created if we are to sustain our development beyond 2020 to 2300.

Cerlian “Maff” Russell