As the 2015 batch of the Burnham Education Scholarship Trust, (B.E.S.T) awardees received their bursaries yesterday, they were urged to see education as an entitlement and to grasp at the opportunity to learn.
The charge was delivered by President David Granger as he addressed students, their parents, and well-wishers, who gathered at Congress Place, Sophia.
“We have committed ourselves to ensuring that every person who enters BEST as an awardee will build a relationship [with us]…we want you to remain [in the programme] every single year, to see you through your secondary school and hopefully, when finances and circumstance permit, to see you through university as well,” Granger said, according to GINA.
The 12 awardees: Orel Emanuel (Region #1), Jahiem Roberts (Region #2), Latoya Woolford (Region #3), Reanna Mc Curchin, Gianni Carpenter and Shemar Bascom (Region #4), Eon Duncan (Region #5), Jahiem Hutson (Region #6), Akeem Williams (Region #7), Lori Ann Gildhari (Region #8), Kerri Ann Khan (Region #10) and Nkechi Layne (Region #10), were drawn from across the ten Administrative Regions of Guyana, after performing well at the National Grade Six Examinations.
GINA said that the awardees were told, that the bursary should not be seen as a “hand out” but as a “hand up” so that parents would have one less thing to worry about.
“I believe in the marrow of my bones that education is an entitlement, and unless children have access to education, we will have in this country something called educational apartheid,” the President stated.
He added that his administration will seek to bridge the educational gap between the rich and the less fortunate, as moves will be made to bring about equal opportunity within the education sector.
As the President wished the awardees well in the coming school year, he urged them to “avoid the pit falls of adolescence”, which include teenage pregnancy, which continues to be a growing problem.
The BEST Awards Programme was founded four years ago by President Granger and is a registered, non-governmental, non-profit sharing trust, GINA said.
