The Grove/Diamond Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) on Saturday hosted an award ceremony in recognition of top performers from both the public and private schools in the district.

The awards were presented to the students for their excellent performances at the recent National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), National Grade Nine Assessment (NGNA) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations. The award ceremony was held at the Diamond/Grove community centre, East Bank Demerara.

Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Public Affairs, Kwame McCoy, commended the NDC for its efforts in supporting children’s education.
The community, he stated, remains an important stakeholder in ensuring “that our children can receive the best guidance and support in their pursuits, educationally and otherwise.”

Minister McCoy further stated that it is the duty of community leaders to examine what more can be done to better educate and support children in the education sector, as they will be the ones to build their communities and the country at large.

“I want to ensure that we from the community level do nothing to fail those ambitions; that we from the community level do nothing to deprive you from the lofty goal, from that dream you have…

“And it means that we have to examine as community leaders, what more and how much more we can do for our children, because for us it must be key to building our community and automatically building our country,” the minister related.

The Public Affairs Minister also encouraged the students leaving secondary schools to get enrolled in tertiary institutions to further their studies as the government continues to put measures in place to support students, as well as to further develop the education sector.

“Those of you in the secondary, moving on from the secondary level this is the time to move in a direction of furthering your education, and it has great possibilities for you because the government of Guyana, as you might have noticed by now, during our elections campaign, we did say that we want to be able to support our children to move up to the highest possible education level.”

Meanwhile, Minister within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Anand Persaud, urged students across the country to take advantage of the many educational opportunities presented to them.

“I wish to appeal to all of our children, to all of our students throughout Guyana, take advantage of what education has to offer, you are the next generation so unleash that full potential of the wonderful opportunities Guyana have [sic] to offer,” Minister Persaud related. (DPI)