Minister shocked pupil placed in school after scoring 19 percent

Citing the 2016 Secondary Entrance Assessment (SE A) results, Rambharat disclosed that he knew of two students who scored 19 percent and 29 percent in Mathematics and English respectively, but were still placed in secondary schools.

Speaking at the formal opening of Republic Bank’s new building in Rio Claro on Saturday, Rambharat said, “When I looked at the SE A results this year, I am absolutely shocked that someone could score 19 percent in Mathematics and be placed in a secondary school in this country.

When I looked at the SE A results, I am shocked that a youngster from Poole RC School could score 29 in English and put into the environment of a secondary school.” The minister made the point that he did not think physically, mentally, or from an education perspective, some youngsters at primary school were being prepared for the life in a secondary school.

Against that background, Rambharat made a plea for assistance from Republic Bank as a good corporate citizen, to help in the development of the young people in the Rio Claro community.

And such assistance, he added, should be given to those ‘weak’ pupils who are in the standard one and two levels.

Rambharat said, “And I think that young people from rural communities are particularly disadvantaged not only by not having the type of educational foundation, but having to travel, in many cases, with unreliable private and public transport to get to school.

If it is one thing that as a corporate citizen Republic Bank can do in this community, it is to assist in the school intervention that I believe are required particularly at the foundation levels of Standard 1 and 11, to identify and support with those students, who if they do not get the support, then nothing in life will prepare them further down the road.”.

Government, the minister said, also had a part to play in the development of rural communities which were often placed at a disadvantage during a time of economic downturn.

He said, “We are now yet again, as we have been in a few times in our history, in a period of risk where the government having curtailed its expenditure in line with revenue, can only afford to do things and you know the people who suffer the most, are the people who live in rural communities like Rio Claro, like Sangre Grande, like Moruga, Cedros, Erin and those areas where the State has a very large footprint in terms of how much it spends.” Rambharat said that he is proud to be part of a government that recently launched initiatives in Laventille.

And, he disclosed, when that initiative was discussed among my ministerial colleagues, he had made it very clear to them that he came from a part of the country that has the same educational challenges as communities in Laventille.

Meanwhile, Republic Bank executive director, Roopnarine Oumade Singh, described the new branch as a “state of the art banking hub” which sits on 11,700 sq ft of land, with two floors, including a sub-basement car park.

The bank is was outfitted with two ABM’s and protected by cutting edge RBL standard electrical and security infrastructure.