Shas­tri Boodan

Stu­dents emerged from the Va­ca­tion Re­vi­sion Pro­gramme (VRP) bet­ter equipped to deal with the chal­lenges of sec­ondary school.

This was the view of Bene­dict Mat­uras­ingh, the act­ing prin­ci­pal of the Ch­agua­nas South Sec­ondary School, one of the fa­cil­i­ties which host­ed the pro­gramme, which end­ed on Fri­day.

The pro­gramme was de­signed to tar­get stu­dents who scored be­low 30 per cent in the 2022 Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­ams.

Speak­ing dur­ing a grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny for their co­hort of stu­dents, Mat­uras­ingh said the par­tic­i­pants im­proved in their at­ti­tude to­wards school­work, con­duct and gained self-con­fi­dence.

He said the tu­tors, guid­ance of­fi­cers, so­cial work­ers and ad­min­is­tra­tive staff as­signed to the school were so pleased with the per­for­mance of the stu­dents that they staged the spe­cial grad­u­a­tion and awards cer­e­mo­ny to cel­e­brate their achieve­ments.

“We saw stu­dents de­vel­op con­fi­dence and lead­er­ship skills, seen play­ing the vi­o­lin, singing mo­ti­va­tion­al songs, tak­ing as­sem­bly, lead­ing the prayer and singing the Na­tion­al An­them,” Mat­uras­ingh told the gath­er­ing

He said to com­mem­o­rate Eman­ci­pa­tion Day dur­ing the pro­gramme, the youths al­so per­formed an im­pres­sive skit on slav­ery and eman­ci­pa­tion.

“It can be re­sound­ing­ly agreed that the teach­ers in this pro­gramme made learn­ing in­ter­est­ing and fun for you stu­dents,” Mat­uras­ingh said.

“Dai­ly, stu­dents were ac­tive­ly en­gaged by these car­ing teach­ers. I am cer­tain that your lives have been im­pact­ed in a pos­i­tive way, lessons were learned, friends were made and mem­o­ries were cre­at­ed that will be re­mem­bered for the rest of your lives.”

He said the guid­ance of­fi­cers had dis­cours­es with stu­dents reg­u­lar­ly, giv­ing them in­valu­able ad­vice and coun­selling to bet­ter nav­i­gate school life. He said par­ents were al­so not left out, as “so­cial work­ers or­gan­ised ses­sions with par­ents and guardians to give guid­ance on how to pro­vide emo­tion­al sup­port and deal with chal­lenges their chil­dren may face” Mat­uras­ingh said the pro­gramme in­stilled in stu­dents the need to nev­er give up.

“The teach­ers here have seen you im­prove in your school­work, your at­ti­tude and con­fi­dence,” he said.