Education is the Key

Thirty-four (34) secondary school students from all ten (10) administrative regions were awarded bursaries when the Burnham Educational Scholarship Trust (BEST) held its annual bursary awards ceremony today, Friday 10th October 2014, at the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Headquarters, Congress Place, Sophia.

The bursaries, valued at $920,000, were awarded to 22 continuing students and 12 new students for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 academic years.

BEST awards are made on the basis of the students’ results at the annual National Grade Six Assessments (NGSA), which are certified by the Ministry of Education.

Regional education committees of the PNCR in all ten (10) administrative regions nominated candidates for final selection by the Board of Trustees of the BEST. The Board comprises veteran educators Mr. Alan Munroe, Ms. Yvonne Harewood-Benn, Ms. Cheryl Sampson, Mr. E. Lance Carberry and Ms. Carol Corbin. BEST is a registered, non-governmental, non-profit sharing trust.

PNCR Leader, Brigadier David Granger gave the feature address. He congratulated the awardees and told them that, “education is the key”. He said that BEST was rewarding excellence and encouraged the awardees to seek excellence in education, excellence in opportunities, in order to enhance their opportunities later in life.

The PNCR Leader told the students, “if you are to succeed you have to be educated, the PNCR wants you all to have a good life… we as a party are not only about winning elections, but we are committed to ensuring a good life for all Guyanese”. He said that the PNCR and BEST would continue to invest in education, which he described as the “mother of employment, empowerment, enterprise and equality” and the gateway to a “good life”. Brigadier Granger said the bursaries were investments that would pay dividends in the form of the future development of Guyana’s resources.

Chairman of BEST, Mr. Allan Munroe gave a historical overview of the Trust and said that it was the vision of Forbes Burnham, who was this country’s first elected education Minister sixty-one (61) years ago, to have an education nation where free education from Nursery to University was an entitlement. BEST was founded to perpetuate that vision.

Recipients of the B.E.S.T. Bursary Awards 2014 are: Mareisa Nascimento (Region No. 1); Azeema Smith (Region No. 2); Samuela Bruce (Region No. 3); Arielle Lewis (Region No. 4 – ECD); Colisha Hazelwood (Region No. 4 – Georgetown); Shania DeGroot (Region No. 4 – EBD); Mark Blair (Region No. 5); Athena Beharry (Region No. 6); Sussana Augustin (Region No. 7); Anna Matheson (Region No. 8); Azem Flatts (Region No. 9); and Roy Rogers (Region No. 10).

The awards ceremony was attended by recipients, parents and guardians, Party officials and Trustees of the Burnham Educational Scholarship Trust (BEST).