Sascha Wil­son

Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy and Ter­tiary Min­is­ter Ru­pert Grif­fith yes­ter­day urged stu­dents to get more in­volved in sci­ence and add to the steel­pan which, to date, has been cred­it­ed as the on­ly Trinidad and To­ba­go in­ven­tion. He was ad­dress­ing an ap­pre­ci­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at the In­dia: A Cul­ture of Sci­ence ex­hi­bi­tion at the Di­vali Na­gar Site in Ch­agua­nas yes­ter­day.

"While we have the steel­pan as the on­ly mu­si­cal in­ven­tion, a per­cus­sion in­stru­ment for the 20th cen­tu­ry, this was done right here in Trinidad," Grif­fith said. "I am sure as young peo­ple as you be­gin to ex­per­i­ment and as you be­gin to be­come deeply in­volved in sci­ence I have no doubt we will have a lot of new in­ven­tions in TT," he said.

He urged stu­dents to think se­ri­ous­ly about a ca­reer in sci­ence. "Study hard in school and we will have more Trinida­di­ans mak­ing world his­to­ry as new in­ven­tors," he said. Grif­fith re­called that last year as Min­is­ter of Tourism he vis­it­ed In­dia and was amazed at the lev­el of sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy. He said In­dia had one of the best med­ical-tourism pro­grammes in the world which he would like to see repli­cat­ed in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

He con­grat­u­lat­ed Ni­herst for host­ing the ex­hi­bi­tion and said over 44,000 vis­i­tors, most­ly school chil­dren, vis­it­ed. Samaren­dra Ku­mar of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of Sci­ence and Mu­se­ums in In­dia, de­scribed the sci­ence and art ex­hi­bi­tion as a suc­cess. He said he looks for­ward to re­turn­ing to Trinidad for In­dia's in­volve­ment in oth­er projects. The ex­hi­bi­tion, which opened on May 22, ends to­mor­row.