Marion clueless about SERVOL

The first hoary chestnut which she pulls out of the educational fire is to infer that because SERVOL was founded by a Catholic priest and is now led by a Catholic nun, Sister Ruth Montrichard, that it is a Catholic organisation.

Anyone who has had more than a nodding relationship with the organisation will witness to the fact that SERVOL is a people’s organisation which works with people from all denominations as well as free thinkers and atheists.

Mrs O’Callaghan has obviously never read the constitution of SERVOL which covers the local Boards of Education charged with the running of its pre-school and adolescent programmes which clearly states in its constitution: "Each Board of Education shall be representative of the social, political, religious and ethnic diversity of the area in question." SERVOL has never ever asked any of its instructors or teachers who apply for a job their religious background. It is a people’s organisation which welcomes all who are committed to the task of serving the small children and adolescents of depressed areas. Unfortunately, Mrs O’Callaghan has committed the serious mistake of columnists who tend to write from their perception rather than from an examination of the facts.

The second hoary chestnut of which she is guilty is that while she admits patronisingly that SERVOL does excellent work, that "SERVOL has not been geared towards upward mobility."

It is clear that Mrs O’Callaghan has no idea of what SERVOL is all about. SERVOL starts with children and adolescents who have been battered mentally and spiritually by an educational system which does not respond to their needs. It begins by offering them a three-month attitudinal development programme which helps them to answer the crucial questions "Who am I?" and "What has made me that way?" and in the incredibly short period of three months, transforms them into adolescents who are convinced that they can overcome the damage done to them by defective parenting and an irrelevant educational system.

SERVOL then offers these young people a ladder on which they can climb out of the pit of poverty to the prestige job in the oil and gas industry. This begins by offering them a chance of a variety of vocational skills from which they can graduate to the High Tech programmes where they are exposed to Computer Literacy and Advanced Electronics and from this they move on to our Advanced Skill Training Centre where they follow esoteric skills which include Computer Repairs, Computer Controlled Electronics Instrumentation,

General Industrial Maintenance, Compressor Mechanics, Industrial Electrical Maintenance and Computer Networking.

Finally, if she had done her homework Mrs O’Callaghan would know that on the recommendation of the Ministry of Education, SERVOL has now come under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education which has accepted the possibility of young people from disadvantaged areas lifting themselves to well paid jobs in the Petroleum and National Gas industries.

We would be honoured if Mrs O’Callaghan would spend a day with us (yes, it will take a day!) to see what we offer the young people of our nation.

GERARD PANTIN, CSSp

Chairman

SERVOL

Port-of-Spain