Sando ASJA scores double victory

San Fernando ASJA Primary School scored a double victory in the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) 40th Labour Day Quiz and poster competition.

By virtue of winning both competitions, the school also captured the OWTU’s 2018 Challenge Trophy at the union’s headquarters in San Fernando.

At the nail-biting finish on Wednesday evening, San Fernando ASJA dethroned defending champions San Fernando TML Primary School. The two schools also faced each other in the 2016 finals, but the results were reversed at that time.

ASJA’s vice-principal Sallysha Mohammed, one of the teachers who trained the students, said their double victory after approximately 10 years in the competition is testimony of the rewards hard work can bring.

Mohammed said after the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination which they all wrote, other children were playing and having fun, but Suraiya Mohammed, Amrika Ramlogan, Ismaeel Chin Wing plus substitute Karissa Ramlakhan got down to studying for the competition.

“After SEA they came to school, got their handouts and began to study. Two of the students went to Florida for vacation and took their handouts with them, so excited they were.”

She said on Monday the winning team, along with Crystal Beharrylal who copped first place in the poster competition, will be presented to the assembly with their trophies on Monday morning. Thirty-one primary schools from the Victoria and St Patrick educational districts participated in the 40th installation of the competition. OWTU chief education and research officer Ozzi Warwick said the competition, which has focussed on schools in the areas where the labour movement developed, may go national next year catering for all schools.

The quiz had as its theme, Celebrating our heroes and their contribution to the development of TT, while the poster competition was The hero in me and my vision of a better TT.

Warwick in his address said the goal was to create a sense of hope among young people, “so they could see themselves as heroes, see themselves as contributing to the development of TT.

“We felt that in light of the current situation, whether it is crime, the economy, the environment, the young people need to see themselves as helping TT to come out of the crisis. Therefore learning about their past and current heroes is really to instil that spirit to fight and that spirit to believe and see a better TT.”

OWTU general secretary Richard Lee also underscored the union’s commitment to the development of TT through education and providing the opportunity for youths to learn about their history.

Ministry of Education representative Sandra Deonarine said the ministry was pleased to partner with the OWTU since activities where children are exposed to creating in visual arts and learning about the history, in this case the contribution of the labour movement, is part of its agenda.

At the finals, the OWTU also honoured two selected heroes, para-Olympian Shanntol Ince and the late Angelo Bissessarsingh, historian and educator. OWTU veteran Glen Dottin was also honoured for faithfully marking the poster competition over the years.

Rudolph Bissessarsingh said he was very proud to receive the plaque on behalf of his son, as his family had a long history with the labour movement from the days of Tubal Uriah Buzz Butler.

Bissessarsingh said one of his uncles assisted the late OWTU president general George Weekes in fashioning the OWTU’s star.

Warwick said he could not verify that information.