THE Mohabir Mookerchand Persaud (MMP) Foundation for Excellence has once again raised the bar when it comes to providing educational opportunities for students from poor background.

The Berbice-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) on Monday awarded 74 students from several schools across Region Six with full scholarships to sit the 2018/2019 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

This award comes as the MMP Foundation held an award and prize-giving ceremony for the 40 students it sponsored last year. At a grand graduation-like ceremony, the students were presented with trophies, medals and certificates for their exemplary performance.
Mohabir Persaud, the MMP founder, said he was motivated by the fact that 95 per cent of the students sponsored by the foundation were able to achieve grade one to three passes in eight or more subjects.

To compensate them for doing well, he decided to give each student $4000 on the spot for every grade one achieved.

Persaud continued by challenging the recipients, as well as those who have successfully completed secondary school, to make the best of the opportunity and put their best foot forward as education is the key to overcoming life’s challenges.

“Education lessens the challenge you face in life; education is the most important tool you can receive that can bring you the most success in society today. They say the sky has no limits and so is the MMP. We have set goals and have achieved them, we have inspired and have managed to resolve the cries, the hunger for education in many ways.”

The foundation, which started a mere two years ago, has been instrumental in shaping the lives of children from day one of its existence by paying their examination fees, providing travelling allowances, paying for their Internet services and giving monthly allowances to assist with miscellaneous expenses, in addition to providing backpacks and stationery supplies for many.

NOTABLE SUCCESS

In the first year, the foundation paid for 15 students to write the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and they performed exceptional. After the success in 2017, the foundation made a decision to pay for 40 children to write the 2018 exams and recorded a 95 per cent pass rate with children gaining grades one, two and three in eight subjects or more.

Now, the foundation has 74 students after sending letters to schools across the region to help identify those in need. The value for the 2018/2019 initiative is pegged at over $3M.
A special tertiary scholarship was also awarded to Region Six top student, Darshanie Jadubir, to pursue a degree in biology at the University of Guyana. She will also receive an annual allowance to help with miscellaneous expenses. She too was the recipient of $4000 each for her 15 grade ones.

Meanwhile, former Regional Educational Officer of Region Six and Head of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) Berbice branch, Shafiran Bajan, in brief remarks, congratulated the MMP for a job well done in trying to get students out of poverty.

“Guyana has implemented projects and increase budgetary allocations to ensure all young people have equal access to education. However, the results would show us that a lot of these resources, when channeled through the different pathways, do not reach the beneficiaries in a way that the MMP foundation does. There are two groups of students: one have the potential and the resources to do well, but there is another group which have the potential but lacks the resources to continue their education and excel. This, I think, is the aim of the MMP Foundation to bridge the gap of those two groups so that the beneficiaries of this foundation will be part of a highly-educated labour force with equal opportunity to the job market.”

Parents have expressed profound gratitude to the MMP foundation for their efforts as they could not have afforded to send their children to school, let alone pay their examinations fees as well as the cost attached to their school projects.