Castries Mayor highlights notable achievements in education at NYC fundraiser

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ayor of Castries, His Worship Peterson D. Francis has expressed the Government’s commitment to a revolutionary upgrade in the island’s education system.

Mayor Francis delivered the keynote address at the New York City-based Project Education’s Breakfast for Education, on Sunday, July 8, 2018, under the theme, “A Celebration of our Commitment to the Education of our Saint Lucian Children.”

Speaking at the activity which catered to over five hundred (500) persons, Mayor Francis highlighted the many achievements of the Government in education, but also applauded the Saint Lucian diaspora for hosting the annual event, which raises resources for hundreds of underprivileged students and families in Saint Lucia who are beneficiary of the educational supplies.

“When we reflect, our education system is not as bad as we think. Simply because if it was, we would never see the likes of Sir Arthur Lewis, Sir Derek Walcott, Dame Pearlette Louisy, George Odlum…and the list goes on. Yes, you may argue that they also did schooling out of the island, but critically and most importantly, the foundation was set by the education system in Saint Lucia. That’s where they all started.” He continued, thanks to your intervention and kind assistance, younger generations of Saint Lucians can benefit from an education, in part because of people like you”, explained Mayor Francis.

“It would be remiss of me not to highlight the many educational successes since our new Government was sworn into office. These successes include the opening of the Dennery Infant School, introduction of Computer Coding and Robotics in schools, development of a comprehensive plan to rehabilitate schools, initial introduction of the Safe Schools Programme, Launch of Educate Saint Lucia, Island wide School Bag and educational supplies distribution, introduction of Digital Literacy Programme in Schools, Introduction of DELF – French Diploma for access to French Universities, Signing of MOU with Republic of Cuba signaling the collaboration of the two countries in the area of Mathematics in particular, advanced plans for the transition of Sir Arthur into a University, the Introduction of ACT for access to higher learning in North America and the Introduction of Education for Democratic Citizenship. I want to thank you on behalf of the Government, Ministry of Education and people of Saint Lucia, especially the parents and children for all your efforts”.

Mayor Francis encouraged other Saint Lucians abroad to follow suite as the initiative, according to him, is in keeping with the Ministry of Education’s own pledge to ensuring that – “No child will be left behind”.