One year later: UG top student jobless

Oct 29, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
It has taken me one year to break my silence. I attempted to pen these lines many times, but deferred, hoping for the best, but I can no longer hold my peace. I did not even tell my daughter that I was writing this letter because, knowing her unassuming and non-combative style, she would be sure to say, “Mummy, don’t…” but anger burns in my breast, and I must speak, lest I implode!
The University of Guyana’s (UG) valedictorian of 2009, Ms Loria-Mae Heywood, received straight A’s for the entire four-year period of her sojourn at UG, and no wonder, as I saw her, many a night, burning the midnight oil, with her head bowed, as she poured over notes, determined to fulfill St Margaret’s Primary School’s motto: “To be the best that I can be.” She may well have been the first student in the history of the University of Guyana to have earned a distinction in every Course of the International Relations Degree programme!
I must say thanks to entities like the Republic Bank who saw it fit to honour her with a monetary gift. Hopefully she will receive the outstanding monetary award from the University of Guyana sometime in the near future.
She received a medal from no less a person than the President of Guyana for her distinguished performance…and one year later, after sending out about 40 job applications, she is still jobless!
Mr Patrick Yarde kindly arranged for her to have an interview with the Prime Minister who promised to see what he could do…and one year after graduation she is jobless! She even received a call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (one of the many entities to which she had sent her job application) stating that she would ‘hear from them’…but one year later she is still unemployed!!
We pay lip service, prattling about youth as the wave of the future and about education paving the way for success, but frustrate our best brains and promote ignorance and incompetence. I’m sure you will agree with me that this signals a time for change! We long for a government by the people, for the people! Surely the writing is on the wall.
If my daughter was from one of our sister Caribbean territories, she would have no doubt received a full scholarship to pursue further studies, but in Guyana our best is rewarded with No Job! (I’ll leave you to guess the reason!)
Enough is enough! Does one expect her to grab a tray and sell some plantain chips and mettai in front of the office of the President with the medal dangling from her neck?
But we still believe God’s Word which says: “I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread! … No weapon formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgement, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord…”
Claudia Heywood

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One year later: UG top student jobless

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