Tobago CivilNET launches community education programme

Tobago CivilNET, last Thursday, launched a community education programme in the Canaan/Bon Accord electoral district which it hopes to replicate throughout the island.

The pioneering initiative, titled Never Too Late To Educate, targets the unemployed as well as students who may need help in choosing a career path.

During the event, representatives from various educational institutions spoke about their respective offerings and distributed pamphlets to the young people.

The institutions represented included the University of TT, Youth Training and Employment Partnership Programme, Tobago Hotel and Tourism Institute, National Energy Skills Centre, THA Division of Community Development, Youth Development and Sport and MIC Institute of Technology.

Dr Ryan Allard, a member of the organisation’s education revolution committee, said education is one of the biggest issues confronting Tobago.

“One of Tobago’s biggest challenges is the need for improved education on the island,” he told a gathering outside of the Milford Court Mall in Bon Accord.

“We know we have some big challenges here. We see it all of the time in the newspapers. We see it every single day and the root of all of those is the education.”

Allard said the committee was established three months ago to review the state of education in Tobago “so that when some experts say Tobago needs this, we, as the people, can say whether we agree with them or not.”

He said education must be understood in a broad context.

“It is not just in high schools, primary schools, it's not just certificates, it's not just degrees. It is about understanding what we, as Tobagonians, need to do to really improve our island.

“CivilNET is really pushing to get people in Tobago to understand the importance of education. That is the root cause of the initiative.”

The Rev Victor George of the Church of the Nazarene told the young people they had the power to be successful.

George, who was born and raised in Bon Accord, said he did not pass Common Entrance (now Secondary Entrance Assessment examination) and followed bad company as a youth.

But he said his parents had always stressed the importance of education.

“As a matter of fact, my father was very, very strong on education and he ensured that we had food to eat, had our school uniforms and books to go to school. He used to go down to Trinidad in July with everybody’s book list but for some reason I fell into bad company.”

After failing the Common Entrance, George said his father encouraged him to learn a skill.

“He said there is something that God wants you to do if you are not good at academics.”

George said he began working in an auto body repair shop and later started his own workshop. During that time, he got his school-leaving certificate and did evening classes.

He recalled that he received his calling to serve God in 1982 and was subsequently accepted into Bible school.

“The Lord placed his hand on my life and changed my whole thinking.”

Owing to his age and the fact that he did not have a secondary education, George said he was initially apprehensive “But I decided I am going to make it.”

He recalled, “I used to go to classes with my Collier dictionary in my back pocket and the words that the lecturers used that I could not understand I would go into my dictionary.”

George said he eventually got a diploma in theology in 1985 and was assigned to a church in Cocorite. He said he worked hard to build the church.

George said he earned a bachelor’s degree in theology in 2002 and a master’s degree in Christian counselling some years later.

He said he was given an honorary doctorate from the church in 2018.

“Such was their impression of the work I was doing in the churches they had given me to pastor.”

George said on April 30, he will retire as district superintendent after serving 16 years in the position.

He said he wants to give back to Tobago.

“I made a promise to this lovely island of Tobago that at some point in time, I don’t want to come back here just to die. I want to come back here to offer back to Tobago what Tobago has given to me.”

George told the young people every individual is born with a purpose.

“There is something that you can do. There is something that you can become. And these opportunities that are offered is for you to look at yourself and hear what God is saying to you.

“The longest journey starts with making the first step. Success is in your path. You just have to reach for it.”

He also urged parents to not give up on their children.

Technical advisor in the THA Division of Education, Research and Technology, Maxslon Roberts, project manager, Tobago Reforestation and Watershed Rehabilitation Programme, and CivilNET member Dr Verleen Bobb-Lewis and the organisation’s PRO Amy Yeates also spoke.