One new school every month

EDUCATION Minister Hazel Manning yesterday announced that as part of her Ministry’s ongoing modernisation strategy, one new school will be opened every month.

Manning made the statement while addressing the graduation and prize-giving ceremony of the Cowen Hamilton Secondary School, Moruga. She also promised that a building, which housed several classrooms and was demolished six months earlier, due to its dilapidated condition, would be replaced by the construction of a spanking new wing at the historic Southern school. Speaking on the theme, “Building and rebuilding for a brighter future,” Manning observed that while the Ministry was responsible for some 620 schools, 300,000 students and 14,000 teachers, there was still a need for additional schools. And, in a veiled reference to former UNC Education Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s assertion that the Education Ministry was only “opening UNC-built schools,” Manning revealed that a “recently” constructed school at Guayaguayare would be opened at month’s end, while another “new” educational institution would be opened in Tobago in November.

Manning urged students to face life’s problems “head on,” saying the tendency to avoid problems, with its accompanying “emotional suffering,” was the “primary basis of all human mental illness.” “Since most of us have this tendency to a greater or lesser degree, most of us are mentally ill, lacking complete mental health,” she said. “So my Ministry wants you, as you move on to tertiary education, to be functional, not dysfunctional,” Manning added. She also advised students to recognise one of life’s great truths: “Life is difficult. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we must transcend it”. Manning said, that discipline was an essential factor in overcoming life’s difficulties. “Discipline is the basic set of tools you require to solve life’s problems,” she said.