The Chetwynd Learning Centre, dedicated to the preservation of ideas of the late President Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, was declared open by President David Granger on Monday.
The centre, which houses the Burnham Book Trust (BBT), Burnham Research Institute (BRI) and Burnham Educational Scholarship Trust (BEST), was opened as a part of the 60th anniversary celebration of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and the 94th birth anniversary of Burnham, the party’s founder leader.
The centre, located at President Granger’s former Lot 5 Thorne Drive, D’Urban Backlands residence, is equipped with modern learning aides that are expected to facilitate access to information for human empowerment.
In brief remarks, PNCR General Secretary Oscar Clarke announced that the Chetwynd Learning Centre, which is named after the father of President Granger, will also provide an information technology service for the Sophia Literacy Project.
The literacy project is an educational service provided by the party in support of the delivery of education and opportunities for creative and self-empowered learning to achieve the goal of creating an educated nation.
“Guyana is a land filled with opportunities to be exploited; however, these dreams cannot be realised unless we create the conditions and build the education infrastructure that produces the scientists, technicians, engineers and mathematicians to take us to modernity,” the General Secretary said.
Granger, meanwhile, said the centre must be used as a public good and not as an office for political campaigning. He explained that as resources become available, it would be open to wider sections of society. He added that he would like to see such centres in every town of the country.
The centre at its current stage would serve as a facility for BEST awardees, where they can carry out research and complete homework “in safe and comfortable environment.”
President Granger pointed out that Burnham “didn’t see education as a privilege; he saw it as an entitlement,” while noting that the centre is not a substitute for the education system but a supplement.
He went on to say that literary materials, such as speeches from Burnham, will be reprinted and placed in the book trust and the research centre in order for young people to be better informed of their history. “Nobody actually goes to the original records to find out what occurred and so that is why we need to reprint those books and that is why we need a research centre, not to publish falsehoods but so that researchers can find out what the truth actually was,” Granger said.
The president said his party would pursue the expansion of the scholarship programme in order for more children across the country to benefit. He remains optimistic that they would be able to move the scholarships beyond the secondary school and into tertiary education so students at that level can receive much-needed support.
