Matthew Chin

Re­porter

matthew.chin@guardian.co.tt

T he Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion wants to en­cour­age the coun­try’s young peo­ple to get in­volved in ar­eas out­side of aca­d­e­mics through its re­cent­ly launched Cul­tur­al Trans­for­ma­tion Ini­tia­tive.

On Wednes­day, pupils from New­town Girls’ RC School ser­e­nad­ed mem­bers of the pub­lic and Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry staff with ten per­for­mances of song, dance, and spo­ken word po­et­ry at the of­fi­cial launch of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s con­cert se­ries, Parang on the Pavers.

In at­ten­dance was Chief Ed­u­ca­tion Of­fi­cer Dr Pe­ter Smith, who said one of the rea­sons for Parang on the Pavers out­side the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion Tow­ers in Port-of-Spain was to en­cour­age the so­cial and emo­tion­al de­vel­op­ment of staff mem­bers.

“We do need to en­cour­age that so­cial and emo­tion­al de­vel­op­ment with­in our staff at the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, and it al­so gives the schools an op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case the tal­ent that they have. When we look at our stu­dents to­day, we re­alise that they per­form with a lev­el of con­fi­dence and this is what we re­al­ly want to en­cour­age. Not just about the class­room set­ting, but we al­so want to give our stu­dents ex­po­sure to the wider en­vi­ron­ment,” Smith said.

The stu­dents of New­town Girls’ were trained by ac­tress and di­rec­tor Pene­lope Spencer and pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (NPATT) Ali­cia Jag­gasar.

The crowds were im­pressed with their beau­ti­ful Christ­mas-themed cos­tumes and im­pres­sive ren­di­tions of Joy to the World, Can­tan­do Glo­ria and O Come All Ye Faith­ful. Al­so among the per­for­mances was a spo­ken word piece urg­ing adults to lead by ex­am­ple and be more dis­ci­plined and tol­er­ant in their dai­ly con­duct.

Dr Smith con­sid­ered the launch of Parang on the Pavers a suc­cess.

“The par­tic­i­pa­tion, as well as the per­for­mance, it was well re­ceived and our stu­dents were well pre­pared to de­liv­er to­day’s ses­sion,” he said.

For the re­main­der of the con­cert se­ries, oth­er schools from across T&T will show­case their tal­ents by per­form­ing parang and ush­er­ing in the Christ­mas sea­son.

Parang on the Pavers will run un­til De­cem­ber 8 with live per­for­mances out­side the min­istry on Wednes­days and Fri­days from noon to 1 pm.