…targeting nursery and primary students

GUYANESE children have been given the opportunity to receive quality education with the launching of a $100M Georgetown Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Academy on Monday.
The institution is owned by the Guyana Conference of SDA and caters to nursery and primary students, with focus being placed not only on their academic development, but spiritual growth as well. The new school, outfitted with six classrooms, has the capacity to accommodate 120 students and is located in Durban Backlands just opposite the Davis Memorial Hospital.

It is also equipped with a wheelchair-friendly sanitary block and composite furniture to allow easy switching from individual to group studies. It currently caters for Nursery One and Two and Grade One students with provisions being made for higher grades.
Already, 24 students have been attending classes at the intuition since September 2018. The Georgetown SDA Academy is the first official denominational educational institution to be owned and operated by the SDA church in Guyana in 42 years.

Expounding on the reason behind the over four decade gap at the launching, was Executive Secretary of the Guyana Conference of SDA, Pastor Exton Clarke who presented a historic perspective of Adventist education in Guyana. He told the gathering that there was once a very vibrant SDA academic presence locally with SDA schools in the country’s three counties.

However, in 1976 Guyana’s education programme was nationalised whereby private education was abolished for several years, until the early 90s with a change of government policies.

Due to financial limitations, restarting for the school took time, but when Pastor Dennis Hamilton met with the President of the Maranatha Volunteers International at a meeting of the SDA Inter-American Division in 2013, things took a turn. Hamilton had intended to secure an agreement with the volunteers, along with Head of the General Conference of SDA of erecting several one-day churches throughout Guyana, but when the team arrived they realised that a different need existed.

“While here, and realising that there was no church school in Guyana for 40 years and knowing the value of an Adventist education on enhancing the mission of the church and aiding in leadership development, [they] made a strong recommendation to amend the proposal for Guyana and instead of focusing exclusively on church buildings, he proposed to construct a primary school and the remaining resources will be used to construct approximately 10 one-day churches,” Pastor Clarke said.

The idea was readily embraced by President of the Guyana Conference of SDA, Pastor Richard James, who in his remarks stated: “Children are important to Christ and the church must see to it that we provide the vital service that is needed for their holistic development.”

He also told media operatives that the school is open to all children, which includes those who are non-members of the Adventist church. “We have an open system in that we are concerned about all children not only Seventh-Day Adventist children, and we would be willing to help parents with achieving the objectives that they have for their children especially as it relates to academic excellence. while at the same time they’re developing a character that is in keeping with God’s plan for children,” he said.

Invited to deliver the feature address was President of the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Hilary Bowman who in his remarks said: “[The] Georgetown SDA Academy must be the catalyst for growth in Adventist education in the development of Guyana. “Whatever you do here must not be the same because Adventist education must be different…the academic programme must be of very high quality and our spiritual programme must be of high quality.”

The school has now become an official school of the SDA Caribbean Union adding to the 8,515 SDA education institutions worldwide; the over 2M students and 85,000 educators in over 100 countries.
Communication Director at the Guyana Conference, Barbara Savory, told the media that some of the interesting programmes also being offered include music, information technology, health and physical education.

“We believe that intellectual development is paramount to our progress as human beings. Notwithstanding, however, we believe that there are other dimensions of life that need critical attention. So, while on one hand we uphold a high degree of academics, we also are adamant that our children should receive the grounded education that will help them to be good moral human beings, and I think that is what we offer that is so different from the regular classrooms,” Savory said.

She said, too, that soon a canteen will be added which will abstain from the sale of unhealthy foods and beverages, like soft drinks and snacks with high sodium content which are very dangerous to the body in the long run.
Speaking to the newspaper on the sidelines, parent Marissa Pearson-Jones said that she transferred her four-year- old son from his previous nursery school when she learnt about the institution’s existence.

“I found that the fees were affordable. His dad and I had a discussion about it and we came to an agreement and honestly I have no regrets because my son is doing extremely well. I’m seeing a lot of improvements; he comes home singing a lot of songs,” Pearson-Jones said.

“I can say, as an adult, he teaches me a lot. He can pray; he prays very strong prayers and I was overwhelmed as a parent at the opening just now. Water almost came to my eyes to see my son being able to do certain things. I’m very proud of it.”