“Guyana needs you to build a prosperous future” – President

St Stanislaus graduation

President David Granger told graduates of the St Stanislaus College on Friday that as Guyana embarks on a ‘green’ development trajectory with an emerging oil-and-gas industry, the country needs their skills, expertise and knowledge, particularly in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), to develop and become one of the most prosperous countries in this hemisphere.
Delivering his charge to the students, parents and teachers at the graduation ceremony held at the National Cultural Centre (NCC), President Granger said St Stanislaus College, though having a broad-based curriculum, has been building a reputation for Science.

The Class of 2017, he noted, can contribute much to this country’s development.
“Cohorts of youth like this class can convert our country’s resources into riches, our promises into performance, and our potential into production. The Class of 2017 will inherit the biggest, most beautiful and bountiful country in the Caribbean Community – the ‘green state’ that is rich in natural resources and the habitat of some of (the) rarest flora and fauna on earth.
“The ‘green state’ is one that will preserve its biodiversity, protect its environment, and promote renewable energy use. The Class of 2017 can combine its human capital with the country’s natural capital to drive the development of the ‘green state’,” the President said.
In addition to the “Boats, Buses, Bicycles plus Breakfast and Books”, or Five B’s programme, President Granger has established the National Endowment for Science and Technology (NEST) with the aim of boosting the Science and Technology laboratories in schools. He said that as the country develops, there will be a greater need for specialists.
St Stanislaus College has been selected as one of 13 high schools which benefitted from presidential grants of $1 million each to improve their Science and Technology laboratories under the NEST initiative. This endowment, he said, is not a fluke or gimmick, but it is commitmen aimed at ensuring that the skill sets needed to develop the country are honed and encouraged.
Furthermore, in his charge to the students, the Head of State urged them to remain faithful to the College’s longstanding principles, values and standards, even as he noted that St Stanislaus College has been a provider of quality education for more than 150 years.
“Tradition cannot be contrived. Tradition sustains the College’s standards – the authoritative bases that define how students behave and how that behaviour is measured,, especially standards of scholarship transmitted over the past century. Tradition embodies the College’s values – the important moral principles and qualities that shape the students’ character and promote camaraderie and esprit de corps. Tradition reflects the College’s intellectual origins. Its Polish logo of crosses and horseshoes and its Latin motto – ‘Aeterna non caduca’ – which translates, roughly as: ‘for the eternal, not the ephemeral,’ tell a tale of both the past and future,” he said.
Meanwhile, headmistress of the institution, Paulette Merell, in her remarks, said she is proud of the school’s performance at the recent sitting of the CSEC and CAPE assessments. She informed that the school recorded a 92 per cent overall pass rate. Moreover, the class of 2017 attained an impressive 95 per cent pass rate in Mathematics and English.
Ishwadat Boodramlall graduated as the Valedictorian with 13 subjects: 12 Grade Ones and one Grade Two. He received the President’s Prize, which includes a laptop, a plaque, a certificate, and a gift voucher worth $20,000.
The ‘College’ was, on May 1, 1866, established by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) as a Catholic grammar school for boys. This Roman Catholic religious order has a long and strong tradition in education. The College’s headmasters between 1866 and 1980, save for a short period between 1869 and 1872, were all Roman Catholic priests who inculcated in students the values and standards of academic excellence.