STUDENTS of nine secondary schools participated on Wednesday in an education forum organised by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) as part of National Quality Week 2015.

The event was held in the main benab of the Amerindian Village at the Exhibition Complex in Sophia.

The main presentation was done by Candelle Bostwick-Walcott, Head of the Conformity Assessment Unit, GNBS, who focused on the theme, ‘Standards – the World’s Common Language’.

GROUP EXERCISE
The students had the opportunity to complete a group exercise for which they were assessed and prizes in the form of textbooks were presented to the winners. New Campbellville Secondary, Annandale Secondary and Diamond Secondary received first, second and third prizes respectively.

Also speaking at the forum was Executive Director of the GNBS, Evadnie Enniss who encouraged the students and teachers to appreciate how standards are important to almost every aspect of human life. She also urged them to adopt and apply the principles of standards to their individual lives since standards can be viewed even in the way one behaves.

STANDARDS – THE ONLY ROAD

Meanwhile, in observance of World Standards Day on Wednesday, the GNBS Executive Director said: “I wish to target especially our small and micro-enterprises with the message that standards is the only road that will land your business to destination success.”

Quality products, services and increased market share are business goals, Enniss said, and businesses must embrace standardisation in order to survive.

“You must remember that customers in the twenty-first century will continue to demand the highest quality of goods and services from their suppliers and this determination will be made by using standards as the benchmark not only for quality but safety also,” Enniss stated.

“So today my appeal to stakeholders across all economic sectors of our great country is: get on board now. Remember that the GNBS, your partners in standardisation, stands ready to offer the requisite technical assistance to any company or business that is serious about putting in hard work to achieve success,” she urged.

Enniss also observed that there are too many actors on the business stage who want to enjoy true success without standards implementation. “Let me say, there are no shortcuts to the process because standards are inevitable and as the theme says – they are the world’s common language for technology, to determine quality for economic success and to provide assurance for safety.” (Rabindra Rooplall)