You must be the change

Addressing hundreds of children from 20 primary and five secondary schools from the Laventille/ East Port-of-Spain area yesterday at the Ministry of Education’s “School Improvement Project” rally held at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Savannah, Rowley told them that their parents and teachers were working very hard for them, and the nation was depending on them to bring about positive changes in their communities.

The School Improvement Project, a pilot in the Laventille area has four components - infrastructural development, school safety, parental involvement, and improvement in numeracy and literacy. The two and a half hour programme consisted of brief words of advice by Members of Parliament in the area, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon, Minister of Youth and Sport Darryl Smith, and Minister of Education Anthony Garcia among others. The programme also featured the talents of students in music, song and dance.

A symbol of the beauty that was TT, Rowley said, was demonstrated in the performance of an East Indian dance by a troupe of Afro Trinidadians.

“Only in Trinidad and Tobago you will see that,” he said.

Speaking of the change required in Laventille, he said if students agreed, they should commit themselves by saying it. They responded in loud choruses of, “I am the change. I am the future.” As a pledge, he told them that they will be provided with T-shirts emblazoned with, “I am the change” because change is on the way for Laventille.

Noting that Laventille is known in many instances for the wrong reasons, he urged them to focus on themselves as disciplined, tolerant and productive students. “Once you tell yourself what you want to be, let nobody tell you, you can’t get there because of where you come from. You set out to demonstrate that in your life, it is not where you come from, it is where you want to go and how you set out and intend to get there,” he said.

“Where there is indiscipline,” he said, “it will require resources to deal with it. Every act of indiscipline whether it is breaking a window or taking up a gun, requires a consumption of resources to respond to it.” Noting that the State has a responsibility to the special circumstances of Laventille, he said, “Special people need special attention and Laventille, you are getting and you will be getting that special attention.” Using himself as an example for students to set themselves high goals and to strive to be the best, no matter where they come from, Rowley said, he was not always Prime Minister.

Born in Mason Hall, Tobago, and then moving to live with his mother in Laventille during his primary school days before moving to Morvant, he said,