Graduates urged to embrace new chapter with confidence

Shas­tri Boodan

Grad­u­at­ing stu­dents of Munroe Road (SDMS) Hin­du School were en­cour­aged to re­main ground­ed in their val­ues, em­brace fu­ture chal­lenges, and strive for ex­cel­lence as they pre­pare to en­ter sec­ondary school.

The ad­vice came from Chair­man of the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (CT­TRC), Ryan Ram­per­sad, as he ad­dressed the Stan­dard Five grad­u­at­ing class dur­ing the school’s grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny held on Thurs­day at the GEN­SPEC Au­di­to­ri­um, War­ren Road, Be­ju­cal.

Ram­per­sad con­grat­u­lat­ed the Class of 2026 on reach­ing a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in their aca­d­e­m­ic jour­ney.

“Your grad­u­a­tion marks the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of an im­por­tant chap­ter in your ed­u­ca­tion­al jour­ney. You have worked hard, over­come chal­lenges, and achieved a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone. Well done,” he told the grad­u­ates.

The CT­TRC Chair­man al­so com­mend­ed the school’s teach­ers and staff for their ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment to nur­tur­ing stu­dents through­out their pri­ma­ry school years. He ex­pressed grat­i­tude to par­ents and guardians for their sac­ri­fices and un­wa­ver­ing sup­port, not­ing that stu­dent suc­cess is the re­sult of a col­lec­tive ef­fort.

Ram­per­sad re­mind­ed grad­u­ates to ap­pre­ci­ate every­one who con­tributed to their ed­u­ca­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ence, in­clud­ing teach­ers, ad­min­is­tra­tive staff, an­cil­lary work­ers, clean­ers, and cafe­te­ria per­son­nel.

“Suc­cess is nev­er achieved alone,” he said.

Em­pha­sis­ing the im­por­tance of cul­tur­al and re­li­gious iden­ti­ty, Ram­per­sad en­cour­aged stu­dents to re­main proud Hin­dus and up­hold the prin­ci­ples of Sanatan Dhar­ma. He urged them to ho­n­our the lega­cy of Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha pi­o­neers Bhadase Sagan Ma­haraj and Sat­narayan Ma­haraj, whose vi­sion and ded­i­ca­tion helped cre­ate ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties for gen­er­a­tions of stu­dents.

“Ho­n­our their lega­cy by be­ing re­spect­ful, dis­ci­plined, com­pas­sion­ate, and com­mit­ted to ex­cel­lence,” he ad­vised.

As the grad­u­ates pre­pare for the tran­si­tion to sec­ondary school, Ram­per­sad spoke about what he de­scribed as the “top dog, bot­tom dog” syn­drome, not­ing that while they are cur­rent­ly among the se­nior stu­dents at their pri­ma­ry school, they will soon be­come the youngest stu­dents in a much larg­er en­vi­ron­ment.

“That tran­si­tion can feel in­tim­i­dat­ing, but do not be afraid. Every suc­cess­ful per­son has had to start some­where. Stay fo­cused, work hard, make good choic­es, and be­fore long, you too will find your place and flour­ish,” he said.

The Chair­man al­so en­cour­aged stu­dents to be­lieve in them­selves, dream big, con­tin­ue learn­ing, and main­tain re­spect for their par­ents and teach­ers.

Ram­per­sad reaf­firmed the CT­TRC’s com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions and in­vest­ing in the na­tion’s youth.

“The de­vel­op­ment of our young peo­ple is an in­vest­ment in the fu­ture of our com­mu­ni­ties and our na­tion,” he stat­ed.