RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

De­spite the hard­ships of the pan­dem­ic, 66 stu­dents of San Fer­nan­do TML Pri­ma­ry School grad­u­at­ed last Sat­ur­day in a vir­tu­al cer­e­mo­ny.

But they were thrilled to get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to vis­it their school for the last time as arrange­ments were made for them to per­son­al­ly pick up their grad­u­a­tion pack­ages, tro­phies, to­kens and take a pho­to­graph at their beloved school.

Re­tired prin­ci­pal at Na­pari­ma Col­lege, Dr Michael Dowlat, de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at their grad­u­a­tion. He urged the stu­dents to set high stan­dards and not let neg­a­tive forces keep them away from at­tain­ing their goals.

"This is not about com­ing first, but achiev­ing stan­dards of ex­cel­lence. You don’t have to know what your pas­sion is right now. You will dis­cov­er your pas­sion as you get old­er. You will not al­ways know what the fu­ture holds, but you have to move for­ward. You will have new sub­jects, learn new knowl­edge and skills. Stay open to try­ing some­thing new, even a new sport or a hob­by," he said.

He added that to be a re­al cham­pi­on, stu­dents have to strive to be above av­er­age.

"There are many forces and be­hav­iours that may pre­vent you from be­com­ing a cham­pi­on. Your par­ents and teach­ers have ed­u­cat­ed you about neg­a­tive forces that pre­vent you from achiev­ing suc­cess. I ask you to set high stan­dards for your­self. Be the hero of your life," he added.

He left the stu­dents with one im­por­tant mes­sage.

"To be a cham­pi­on you have to be kind. Self­ish­ness is worse than COVID. Be good and kind and God will bless you with great abun­dance," he added.

TML's pres­i­dent Farz Khan con­grat­u­lat­ed the school prin­ci­pal Wahi­da Mo­hammed-Nar­ine as well as the par­ents and staff.

Among those grad­u­at­ing were Se­bas­t­ian Mitchell, the son of Tourism Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell, and Stef­fi Seep­er­sad, daugh­ter of crim­i­nol­o­gist Dr Randy Seep­er­sad.

Mitchell told Guardian Me­dia that notwith­stand­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and the re­stric­tive reg­u­la­tions, the grad­u­a­tion was im­pec­ca­bly planned and ex­e­cut­ed.

“It was done with the stan­dard of ex­cel­lence that prin­ci­pal Wahi­da Mo­hammed-Nar­ine, Ra­bia Mo­hammed and all the oth­er teach­ers at that school have be­come renowned for,” the Min­is­ter said.

"I do feel that the grad­u­ates are a bit un­lucky to miss out on TML’s tra­di­tion­al grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny, be­ing seat­ed with their friends, be­ing able to thank their prin­ci­pal and teach­ers for their guid­ance, pa­tience and per­sis­tence, and of course, be­ing able to hear the words of wis­dom as the grad­u­ates come to the end of this jour­ney and be­gin an­oth­er. It all adds to the emo­tion and sig­nif­i­cance of this rite of pas­sage," he added.

De­spite the set­backs, Mitchell said the stu­dents still dis­played ex­cite­ment at be­ing al­lowed to grad­u­ate.