“THE fact that a child is poor should not prevent him or her from having a rich education.”So said President David Granger who has promised to “put good money” into an Education Scholarship Trust if stakeholders at Tutorial High School establish one to ensure poor and underprivileged children are given fair opportunities in being educated.

The President made this commitment in invited remarks at the Tutorial High School 16th annual graduation and prize giving ceremony staged yesterday at its campus on Woolford Avenue, Georgetown.

102 students who were successful at the 2015 Caribbean Secondary Examinations Council (CSEC) examinations, graduated at the event.

The Tutorial High School was built upon the vision of offering higher level secondary education to a poor colonial community from the inception of its existence by founder Austin Castello. President Granger said the school probably co-incidentally but quite significantly came into being the very day World War 2 began on September 1, 1939, one which shattered the world’s great colonial empires resulting in life-changing transformations.
“The significance may be that Austin Castello chose the day that war broke out and that war ended up breaking up the British Empire. He didn’t cause the war because of the fact that he had the foresight of many people coming back from the war were able to benefit. Many people who didn’t even go to the war were able to benefit because the war revealed how poor the economies were and Mr. Castello, even before the war, knew there were extreme poverty in this country and unless he did something about it, a lot of the poor people in Guyana would not have been able to get access to secondary education.”

President Granger said the school remains a path-breaker in Guyana, preserving its character and allowing the cherished model introduced by Castello, to remain its strong foundation. It is on this very foundation that he desires to deposit into a Tutorial Education Trust Fund (TETF), preserving the “generous and charitable” nature of the man who “helped ordinary people into the world of secondary education and in so doing opened the door even to tertiary education.”
Granger said, “Today I promise you that if Tutorial is prepared to establish an Education Scholarship Trust; if Tutorial is prepared to help yourself to get more young people, more poor people, and more underprivileged people to this school, I will help Tutorial to help you. So alumni, staff (and) students if you are prepared to help poor families to send their children here, I am prepared to put good money into that fund to help you to help yourself.”

To the graduates, Granger stated that they have excellent examples to follow since the school has produced many among the greats in the land, including Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Barton Scotland, the Alumnus who delivered the feature address.
Dr. Barton’s accomplishments offer hope that they too reach the highest offices in the land holding the highest professions.
“Keep on keeping on. Your education doesn’t stop when you get a job. You continue until you reach the highest levels,” he encouraged.
The world is fast-paced and with communications technology moving at the speed of light, “so we have to have an education system which keeps abreast with the fast-paced world of communications. Continue to study, continue to work, continue to develop your mind and your bodies (and) become worthy examples…continue to make Tutorial High school one of the finest high schools with a character of helping ordinary people in this country Guyana,” the President said.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Scotland, in delivering the feature address assured the graduates that their progress was in their own hands and encouraged them to take several values in their new endeavors, which serves to anchor them wherever they go.
In their own hands are their “growth and development determine even to define who you are as a person. And to define how you wish to develop yourself, how you wish to be viewed by those with whom you interact and what reputation you wish to acquire…that reputation will accompany you through life.”
While they are “moving on or moving up” to another phase of their lives, they must keep close the value of honesty in dealing with fellow men.
Another value in which they must be fruitful is that of respect for all and above all for self and country.

“There could be no compromise on self-respect. Give it, show it and by your conduct…demand it of all with whom you come into contact. Respect your country. See it as needing your help and see yourself as wanting to give that help. Be prepared to do your part,” he said adding that they must first know what they want to contribute to Guyana’s development and what they want to achieve.
And as they undertake tasks, graduates must let efforts show commitment to the particular task undertaken. “When you’ve given your best, you’ve given your all and there is nothing more that you can give…,” said the Speaker of the House.
He also encouraged them to always be “reliable” and letting their “word be (their) bond always”.
LaTonya Browne, the school’s 2015 valedictorian, was the recipient of a $50,000 gift voucher from Austins Book Store and a trophy. She has also received the “President’s Award for Excellence” for being the best graduating student for the school, an impressive shield which will remain in the school’s possession and be passed down to all valedictorian students in future.

Headteacher Walterine McCloud testified that the school has risen above many challenges and succeeded with a record 71% pass, beating the overall national percentage pass record at the exams. Of the 28 subjects taken by the 102 students at the school for CSEC this year, Tutorial boasts 100% passes in Agricultural Science (double and single awards), Physical Education, Theatre Arts, Food and Nutrition, a 65% pass rate in English Language, 62% in English Literature and a 52% pass in Mathematics, the headteacher reported.

By Shauna Jemmott