The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) last Thursday hosted its inaugural Tribute to Teachers Programme, honouring 61 students and 57 teachers in Berbice County for their exceptional performances during the last school term.
The initiative, which was done in collaboration with the Berbice branch of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), has its genesis in a pilot programme that began at the Port Mourant Secondary School three years ago to motivate teachers and students to continue excelling. Centered on the premise that if persons are recognized and rewarded for their hard work and achievements they would endeavor to do better and others would emulate them, the programme rewarded one teacher and a student every school term for their exceptional performances. Dubbed a success, the programme has been expanded to include all schools in the Berbice County.
At last Thursday’s ceremony, RHTY&SC Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster, in his address to the awardees, said: “I would like to encourage you to maintain your high standards and to always strive for excellence. Teachers, it is your duty to mould the minds of our youths, and it’s a responsibility that you must take note of and do it with pride.” He then urged the students to “continue on the current path to fulfill your ambitions. Listen carefully to every advice that is given to you, develop a strong faith in the god you believe in, and most importantly avoid the evil ways of Satan. You must always say no to drugs.”
Foster concluded by saying “the club would like to recommit itself to making education the key priority for youths in Berbice. We will, however, need the support of every shareholder”.
Each school in Berbice was given a number of raffle sheets to fill, which made them eligible for a teacher and student of the school to be selected to be honoured. The award ceremony was financed with monies raised through the raffle sheets and sponsorship from Food for the Poor, Metro Office Supplies and the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated.
Of the 200 odd schools in Berbice, only 90 were represented at the award ceremony and this was met with disappointment by the organizers. “We had in excess of 200 schools that were supposed to be a part of this activity. It is shocking to note that today only 90 have responded. It is most disgusting,” stated GTU president Colin Bynoe. “The idea behind spreading the programme to all schools is to seek to bring about a higher level of motivation among our teachers in the schools in Regions 5 and 6,” he noted.
Bynoe added that “many of the teachers when they go to work, they are faced with a lot of problems. But they stand up at the end of the day and take a lot of physical and verbal abuse from people’s children and people themselves; and they are still standing. Don’t you think there is a need for us to find a way to motivate them?” Similarly, he said children go to school every day and make their parents and teachers proud, and thus should be rewarded for performing well.
Of the 61 students rewarded for performing well in the last school term, 19 came from the nursery level, 31 primary and 11 secondary. They were each presented with medals christening them as Students of the year and received gift hampers with learning materials. Meanwhile, 16 nursery school teachers, 29 primary and 12 secondary were given certificates and gift hampers for being the best educators in Berbice.
