Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 13, 2019 (SKNIS): This week, Cabinet Ministers have been traversing to various schools across the twin island federation in celebration of 36 years of Independence, which is being celebrated under the theme “Unify, Transform, Enrich: Uplifting Communities for Independence 36”.
Speaking at one of the schools, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, the Honourable Shawn Richards, stated that he and his colleagues have deemed it important to spend time with the students especially as the nation celebrates 36 years of independence.
Deputy Prime Minister Richards took the opportunity to interact with the students to test their knowledge on the theme.
Students were called up to the mic to recite the independence theme to which three students were eager to answer.
The Minister of Education stated that the theme is relevant to all across the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis especially with respect to communities.
“Quite often when we think of communities, we think of a community perhaps as a village or a town. So you may think of a community such as Sandy Point, but right here at the school this is a community. You have a number of things in common here at the school,” said the deputy prime minister.
Amongst what you have in common is one common purpose and that is to get an education. You are enriching yourselves by getting an education. You are uplifting yourselves, you are uplifting your communities by getting an education. That is what you are doing here whether at the Charles E. Mills Secondary or at the Sandy Point Primary.”
He stated that this year the government wants the nation and its communities to continue to transform. “We want our communities to come together in unity; we want to enrich our communities. We want to uplift our communities,” he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Richards asked the students about the ways in which they can unify their communities to which a student replied, “treat others the way you want them to treat you.”
“She is indeed correct. Because if we treat others as we would want others to treat us, indeed we are saying to others that while we would want the best, we also want the best for everyone else within the community,” he said.
The next question that was posed to the students was how they can transform their communities. The volunteer student stated that communities can be transformed by building new buildings in St. Kitts.
“He is correct because if you build a new wing at the school you are building the new wing to basically help transform the school so that you can receive either further instructions to what you are currently receiving,” he said.
The deputy prime minister also asked the students how they can unify communities. A student answered saying that by forming social groups.
“She said that when you form groups the groups are able to come together for different persons in the community. They are able to discuss different ideas and they are able to implement the different ideas,” he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Richards noted that when the students broke down the theme they were able to get a better understanding of its meaning. He said that this is the same analysis that the students can use in the classroom.
