Nevis Education Advisor – Christine Springette
Charlestown, Nevis
May 26, 2008
Education Advisor in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) Mrs. Christine Springette appealed to students of the Charlestown Secondary School (CSS) to prepare themselves for the many opportunities that would become available in a developing Nevis.
She gave the advice when she stood in for Premier of Nevis and Minister of Education Hon. Joseph Parry at a celebratory church service on May 23, 2008, at the Charlestown Methodist Church, to mark the school’s 58th anniversary. The event was held under the theme “Augmenting the past to impact the future”.
“Do not sell yourself cheap. You may never have proof of how important you are even now. You are more important than you think and so I am hoping that each students delicate himself or herself to the opportunities which are open to you”¦some of you are passing many subjects but the future that some of you have chosen, is one of delinquency and disobedience and non performance.
“The country is developing and there is going to be great opportunities for jobs and for self employment for entrepreneurship. I am appealing to you to get ready for what is in store or else positions will be filled by persons from abroad because the country must develop and positions must be filled,” she said.
Mrs. Springette who was a former student and Head Mistress of the school congratulated the teachers for their hard work and acknowledged that teaching today was much more difficult today then in her time.
“I want to congratulate the teachers because I really do believe they try very hard and I don’t try to measure myself with them because when I was a teacher teaching was so much [easier]. There were no drugs, when I left 20 years ago drugs was just creeping into the school system. There was no drinking, there was no great fascination with sex because there is a great fascination with sex “¦and children stood up when teacher entered the classroom,” she said.
Notwithstanding, Mrs. Springette also asked the students to reflect on their contribution to the school and to reflect on the relationships with persons who may have made a difference in their lives but did not take hold of the opportunities they presented.
She said the CSS had served Nevis well and had produced students that had gone on to hold major positions in and out of Nevis. She pointed to Hon. Hugh Rawlins who was recently appointed to serve as Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
