#BTFocus – Forget COVID-19 . . . Ministers advise Class 4 students to stay focus

Students preparing to sit next Tuesday’s 2020 edition of the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (BSSEE) are being encouraged not to be distracted by the challenges of the COVID-19 environment.

This was the advice Member of Parliament for St Peter Colin Jordan and Member of Parliament for St James North Edmund Hinkson gave to the Class 4 students of Gordon Greenidge Primary School today when they visited the institution to deliver pre-examination motivational speeches and kits.

Jordan told the students that even though there is a lot happening around them, particularly as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, they must prove to their teachers, parents and themselves that they can focus to do well in the examination. He informed them that learning to remain focused through difficult times is an important lesson, because they will encounter challenges when they enter the world of work.

“There are always challenges, but the test, as a child or an adult, is your ability to work with those challenges. If you can work through those challenges, if you can go into the examination in a mask and still do your best, if you can have a graduation which is different from what the children last year may have, and still be content, then you are really preparing yourself for growing up.

“You are in the midst of your growing, and I just really want to encourage all of you to see the examination on Tuesday as part of your growing-up process and part of what will make you a good woman, a good man, a good person, a good citizen of the world,” Jordan said.

Jordan reminded the students that the examination would not only determine where they go for tertiary education but will also help them to identify any weak areas they need to work on.

Meanwhile, Hinkson advised the children to use the lessons they are learning from the pandemic to become stronger and resilient individuals. Like Jordan, Hinkson told the students that life is not a smooth sailing. Hinkson reminded the wards that they must have faith and urged them to say a prayer before they begin the examination.

In addition to having a good breakfast, the Minister of Home Affairs encouraged the children not to allow their parents and guardians to make them nervous.

“After the examination life still goes on, no matter what school you go to. All secondary schools are good schools. All of them have well-qualified teachers and ultimately, it is up to you because the teacher can only teach as much as you are willing to learn. You have to do your best, you have to learn to be good people. You have to learn to continue to avoid illegal drugs,” Hinkson said. (AH)