Agriculture is big business

Newsday continues its School in the Spotlight focus with this week’s spotlight being on the Tunapuna Presbyterian Primary School and the work its teachers are doing to incorporate agricultural science as a main focus of the school’s curriculum. Senior Reporter CAROL MATROO reports.

There are just 265 students attending the Tunapuna Presbyterian Primary School, but over the years, this school has accomplished so much that one may be forgiven to think the school’s population is twice as large. And they do not only perform well academically, but they also excel at extra curricular activities and sport.

According to senior teacher Hans Noo Hoo, the pass rate in the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam from for 2014-2018 was 96 per cent. For this year, the school attained 100 per cent passes.

Angelique Balmacoon and El-Lee were selected by the Office of the Prime Minister’s Child and Gender Affairs as Unicef Child Ambassadors in 2017. They helped flood victims in Las Lomas and St Augustine by assisting families and providing basic items to underprivileged children.

Balmacoon and her sister Angelique, were part of a team who went to the OPM with other primary and secondary students to assist in writing the Child’s Right Protection Policies earlier this year. The school’s cricket club (Sports Atlantic LNG) has had tremendous success over the past several years.

They were the national champions in the Cricket League under 14 in 2016 while the Atlantic LNG Girls under 11, placed second. They repeated this in 2017. In 2018 the girls placed second and the boys won the St George East district. This year Boys Atlantic LNG placed third in the St George East district finals. Students are also part of the El Dorado Police Youth Club.

Noo Hoo introduced chess to the students two years ago. He teaches the game mainly to students who have already written SEA.

This year, Joshua Martin was the individual winner of the First Citizen Bank chess competition while the school placed 21st out of 45 overall. But, closest and dearest to this teacher’s heart is agriculture.

Noo Hoo, who is also into farming, is trying to instil into his students the importance of this particular field. “Two years ago we came second when the Education Ministry had their competition for schools in agriculture sustainability. We came second because we didn’t have the animal category. If we had a rabbit in a cage we would have won.”

Noo Hoo has always encouraged his students to plant and they have a small garden at the back of the school where they presently have some short term crops including tomatoes and ochro.

He had been helping the students with the garden for 15 years after he had a difference of opinion with a former principal. “When the plants matured and bore, the kids would pick the vegetables and we would have an open market on Saturdays and sell them. The money would go towards purchasing more seeds and plants and fertilizers. The principal said I should not be sell the produce that it was a gift to everyone. So, I said fine. I packed up my equipment and that was that.”

With the help of Deloitte Touche Auditing Firm, Noo Hoo was once again able to get the school’s garden back on track. The company has been supply them with the plants and the students tend to them. Noo Hoo said he wanted to show the students that agriculture was not just a job, but a business, big business.

“I teach them how it can be self sustainable. They can use the skills from having a kitchen garden and spread out to agri-business. Farming is a mindset. There are some students who are not so good in academics, but agriculture helps to motivate them. There are simple skills set they can follow so they can be self-employed. They can not only provide food for themselves, but have a sustainable business.”

He said the students need to be taught that agriculture and farming is a noble profession. “I let them know what is the potential of agri-business. They think of farmers as people who wear dirty old clothes, and people think that farming is for poor people. In the United States, when people hear you are a farmer they have so much respect for you.

“As a child, there are two things you must work towards - an education or a skill. If you have one that is all well and good, but if you have both, then you can do anything,” he said.