The Guyana Defence Force awarded bursaries valued $25,000 each to 52 children of members of the force who were recently successful at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).
The bursaries and certificates of achievement were presented to the children in the presence of their parents at a simple ceremony held at in the auditorium at Base Camp Ayanganna on Thursday, a press release said.
In his charge to the recipients, Staff Officer One General Four, Lieutenant Colonel Godfrey Bess urged the children to make the best of their secondary education. “Pay attention to academics and also participate in extracurricular activities. Take on leadership and membership roles and be unselfish in your pursuit of knowledge,” he said. Bess also cautioned the students about social websites that encourage a culture of broken and abbreviated use of English Language which could have dire consequences during examination.
Top awardee Camisa Chisolm, a student of the Bishops’ High expressed appreciation on behalf of all the awardees to the army for its gesture. “Thank you for showing us that there is a reward for hard work and for compelling us to do our best always,” she said. The other top performers are Amaya Fung of St Rose’s High, Denisha Leitch of Berbice High, Jubal West of Brickdam Secondary and Aatwanna Craig of Diamond Secondary.
The army said this year it handed out the largest number of bursaries since it started in 1974. To date 1,466 have been handed out. The GDF presents these awards to the students in recognition of their efforts and of the sacrifices their parents and guardians make to ensure that they receive a secondary education. The GDF extends congratulations to all its bursary recipients and wishes them success in the future.
