Students of St. Gabriel’s School took advantage of a visit by Prime Minister Owen Arthur to their morning assembly today, to display their talent through song and poetry and to make recommendations about how Barbados could be improved.
Several students read their essays which highlighted issues such as littering, poverty and the negative effects of greenhouse gases. They noted, however, that Barbados was still a beautiful place to live.
In his address to the students, Mr. Arthur pointed out that he would have invited them to the recently held national consultation on societal issues, if he had known the many sensible solutions they had to offer to some of the challenges being faced.
He said that there were plans to publish the findings of the consultation in a book which would show how Barbados was viewed at age 40 and what was needed to be done to make it a better place to live.
“The book will not be complete without the presentations made here this morning. They need to be included in a St. Gabriel’s section of the book,” the Prime Minister stated.
He thanked the children for “the wonderful things” they had said about their country and asked them to pledge that on the fortieth anniversary of Barbados’ independence, they would do whatever was possible to make the country an even better place to live than what they had inherited.
Mr. Arthur also said he was happy to have been invited to the school’s independence programme, and explained that he had intended to visit a school on the fortieth anniversary of independence because he still had very fond memories of a visit to his school in 1966 by the then Prime Minister, The Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow.
The Prime Minister was presented with several tokens of appreciation by the students, including a crest of the St. Gabriel’s School which entitled him to become an honorary member. He thanked them for the many gifts and promised that some of them would be put on display at his official residence, Ilaro Court.