Distribution of Cheques to Private Early Childhood Centres

[music] I would say Prime Minister, it's always a pleasure to have you with us to continue [music] to demonstrate your commitment to early childhood education, particularly through this initiative which began over three years ago. Your support has truly been meaningful to the sector. The private sector plays a critical role in the care and nurturing of our young ones and this financial support is essential in helping our centers thrive and operate within the expected standards. The private early childhood sector caters to the majority of our preschool population. some 80% of enrollment representing over 3,000 children. In real terms, this means that the private sector carries the bulk of responsibility for meeting the learning and development of our children. And beyond education itself, we must also consider what that means for our workforce. ensuring parents have a safe and reliable place to leave their children each day which turns into support which turns into support a more productive work workforce and I recall during COVID for example when all schools were closed down the problem that we had we have a huge hotel industry and of course those parents had to go to work so we needed the early childhood centers especially the private um sector because often you find when there are issues at our school plants the public centers remain closed but you are the champions you remained open and during co that is exactly what you did you served the country and we continue the workforce so you don't only you play a critical role not only in laying the foundation for children's development but also in supporting economic development and poverty reduction done sir big things right it is therefore vital that you receive this support needed to help establish and thrive and again I remember with my colleagues here I think mainly Miss Favory and Miss Mafra during COVID writing copious um proposals to get the support during COVID and it wasn't forthcoming and it was really heartbreaking. And today we have this blessing of receiving the yearly subsidy of the $3,000. And I don't often get the opportunity to speak to you directly like this. sender administrators and practitioners who work tirelessly day after day to nurture and shift the minds of our youngest learners. You are in every sense unsung heroes long before the rest of us begin our day. You are already preparing your centers, planning activities and getting ready to welcome our children with open arms. You wear many hats. Teacher, caregiver, counselor and sometimes substitute parent and I think most times substitute parent often with little recognition and we know not nearly enough resources. And again, I reflect sometimes sitting at my office at early childhood and knowing how hot it is out there and you having those little ones with extra body heat. And I you and I really applaud you for every day showing up and do what you do so remarkably. Well done. Give yourself a round of applause. [applause] You see, I say unsung heroes deliberately because many of the centers operate with little to no profit at all. At times we go to assess centers and they would say okay can you fix that door or can you get more resources and they will say Miss Bruce we don't have the money and at times I will pull the administrator or the owner aside and I'll say let's look at your finances and you breaking even and some of you are not making any profit and one of my first suggestions would be let's try and raise the fees often there is reluctance because you always say if we raise the fees the parents won't bring the children and you want the children to come to to have the care that they they need. So again you see sometimes we take those little things for granted when a parent drops a child at 7:00 we don't realize how much it takes to care for that child. There was a particular center we visited recently and you know some parents who are not able to pay they batter they bring bread fruit they bring vegetables in exchange for fees. So this is what you do daily and sometimes you don't get recognized for it. So I say really about now you look at each other and say well done. >> Good. >> And those decisions you take running a business with no profit is a decision of someone who has the well-being of our children before your own. You have contributed so much to the nation's development often quietly and without recognition. and is truly delightful that you are now celebrated. This morning marks our third check dispersement ceremony and it is a moment to pause and appreciate just how far we have come. What began as a single step has grown into sustained commitment. And as I mentioned earlier, we started at 25, we at 3,000. But that's not the peak. We are moving forward. I speak on behalf of the prime minister [applause] >> and this is precisely why we must value the work of early childhood operators and I know the minister values your work because that's why he's here today and that's why he's made the commitment over the last three years to give us those checks. It is in these early years that the seeds of who we become are planted. The values, the discipline, the sense of right and wrong that shape a child long before they reach the classroom. Excuse me. Almost there. So this is a very good investment and later on we'll see returns on those investment. Many years from now will reflect [snorts] in a nation with less crime, less poverty, and less social unrest. And we could see what's happening right now. Cit citizens who are well-rounded, productive, and equipped to contribute meaningfully to St. Lucia's growth. That's the true return on our investment. And when you think about it, we have I think we wrote 104 checks at $3,000 and each child over 3,000 children would receive $100 each per term. Do the math. That's an investment. Don't you agree? Let's give the prime minister a round of applause. [applause] Every check represented here this morning represents more than a financial transaction. It represents a renewed commitment to the children in our care, to the centers that open the doors to them each day and to the belief that every child in this country deserves a sound start to life and every opportunity to develop to his or her potential. I want to take a moment as I have thanked the prime minister, thank the government of St. Lucia for its unwavering support, investment in early childhood development, and thank the administrators and staff of our centers for their dedication, patience, and love in caring for our children. As we proceed with this morning's program, I ask that we hold in our hearts the reason we are truly here, our children. Every decision made, every dollar dispersed, and every policy shaped begins with the ends with them. Once again, welcome to our third dispersement ceremony. in true early childhood early childhood fashion. Let us enjoy the morning together. I thank you >> and I still feel your energy and your and your excitement. Um before I before I go and permit me this opportunity to really thank the prime minister of Senucha for his wisdom and being rem and remaining committed to this initiative. I think you should put your hands together. [applause] Whenever whenever we have the discussion about early childhood education, I will tell you a secret about the prime minister that he has a few soft spots. I will not tell you all the soft spots unless you take advantage of my boss. But I can tell you one of his soft spots is for early childhood education in St. Sure. [applause] And anytime you know we have two min we have two ministers of education. Anytime I hear minister of education and I see he looks in my direction I know he will ask me about early childhood education and that is that is that is a minister who really who really loves the children of St. Lucia. It brings back to me a story I said briefly back my name but I'll take my time there this morning. It brings me back to to um this encounter I had in one of our early childhood centers. This is a true story. I'm actually looking for the practitioner. I'm not [clears throat and cough] seeing I'm not seeing her. I went to one of the schools and it was after Easter. That's a true story. I went there after Easter and I school was reopening. So I visited I was visiting the schools and while I was while I was there the practitioner she gave me this story about the children returning from the Easter celebrations and she was recapping with the students what they had learned before and she told she told the story she told the children who's the man who gave us everything that we needed and sacrifice so that we could be where we are today it's Easter time so she's looking for a particular answer. [laughter] And when she asked the students that, the students in chorus and in unison said, "Honorable Philly." And she said, "NO, NO, NO, NO, HONORABLE. [laughter] That's not the answer I'm looking for." You know, SHE'S LOOKING FOR JESUS CHRIST. >> BUT THE CHILDREN SAID, "Honorable Philip Jier." And while those children are not completely wrong, I don't why they're not completely right. I do not think they're completely wrong either because really and truly he's a man who loved who loves the children of St. Lucia and who is delic dedicating resources towards towards the children of St. Lucia. So I want to thank him but I want him to know there is a fan base. I will not tell you which school but it's a school in OJ library. So you could imagine why it's a school in OJ library that that I had this I had this encounter. Also permit me to really thank you. Thank you the men and women who make who make all of this possible. And I say men and women because I honestly believe there must come a time in early childhood education where we need to really bridge that gender gap. As children grow old, as children are introduced at the formative stages of their life to education, they must see excellent male figures that they could use as excellent role models as they grow. And so I'm not saying this to take a jab at any gender or at women. And I'm just saying that the gender balance in education needs to be one that we need to really we need to really look into and empowering early childhood practitioners I think will be very vital in ensuring that we have more men enter early early childhood education. And so I want to say I want to say thank you. Thank you to you who really impress upon our children at a very very early age. You're the one who teach them, you nurture them, you comfort them, you challenge them, you help them to grow. And sometimes you do it without a thank you. I'm learning very very quickly from December to now that sometimes in public service, this job could be a thankless job. And I'm I suspect because I was a teacher before that sometimes teaching could be a very thankless job. But I want you to know that your efforts they never go unrecognized. They might not they might go unrecognized to maybe the person whom you offered the sacrifice for. But if you if you really understand life, if you really understand your maker, if you really understand that the beauty that you put into people's life, it comes right back into your own. You will know that your efforts, they really do not go, they do not go unrecognized. And so on behalf of the government of St. Lucia, on behalf of the people of St. Lucia, I want to tell you thank you. And I want to tell you thank you for doing a remarkable job in the lives of our children. And I think right now you should put your hands together for yourself and give yourself a pat on the back for doing an excellent job and reaffirm the person next to you for give them a pat on the back for doing an excellent job so far in early childhood education. really you are the ones challenging um challenging our children. I'm a parent. I didn't plan on saying all of this, but I'll continue. I'm I'm a I'm a parent and I remember um walking my daughter the first day of school. The first day of school, walking her to to the early childhood center, Miss Kola's center. I don't see her here today, but Miss Miss Colola. And I remember how welcoming the center was and how it made the transition so easy. And I mean sometimes it's the the difficulty is not with the child you know the difficulty is with the parent >> because and I remember how she reassured me and I guess the story is for all of you head how she reassured me and she said you could go Mr. Butcher and I stood there and she said Mr. you could go. She will be all right. And as a parent, you really want to know, will that child be all right? >> And years and and and and days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and months turned into years. So much so that I was so comfortable I had a second child and then but I could tell Miss Schola the second child is also the last child cuz I'm not having anymore. And so and so I really want to thank and I want to thank all of you for not only making it a comfortable place for the children but for also reassuring us as parents that we've left our children in a very safe environment and in a world that is so that is so full with turbulence in a world that is filled with uncertainty in a world that is filled sometimes with very troubled issues I am so happy that our children could get someplace that is very safe very secure and in the hands of people who really really care about them. And so we thank you for that. Today as we deliberate I want to make a very very bold statement. I want to make a very bold statement and I want to tell you that this was a deliberate action by the government of St. Lucia. We found the political courage. We found the political strength to make that decision three years ago and to continue with it. And we made it at a time of extreme pressure. And I do not want I don't think you'll take it for granted, but I do not ever want you to take it for granted that we had nothing else to do with the resources of the country, so we just decided to do this. No, that is not true. In a time where we're losing revenue, and the prime minister will tell you that we're losing revenue, in a time where we have global uncertainty, in a time where we are practically in the middle of a war that we have nothing to do about and we have no control over. Yet, this government saw it fitting to continue all the social programs for this country because we believe in the people of St. Lucia. And so that took political strength, that took political fortitude, that took the wisdom of a prime of our prime minister. And these are things that he will not have lengthy discussions about. When you speak about the children, that that's that's not that's not on the table to cut. When you speak about special ed, no, that's not on the table. That's that is not a policy that you could play with. That's what I'm saying. These are policies he believed that are etched in the social DNA and dynamic of the people and they should not be touched. And one day before I leave politics, I will I will give you I will I will mimic the prime minister not now and I will show you in a very classical example of what our our prime prime minister is. And one of the lines he always uses, leave don't play the poor people of this country. Take care of the poor people of this country. And he says it with every fiber of his being. And you know if you say something once, somebody might not believe you, but if every time you meet him, he says it, you know that it's really in his heart. And when he speaks about the children, when he speaks about special ed, when he speaks about the boys on the block, when he speaks about truency, when he speaks about water harvesting, when he, you know, I could say them over and over because I hear them every time. when he speaks about those things, you really know that it's deep within his heart and he really really is interested is interested in it. And so we kept all of our social programs and every once in a while people might somebody might say you sound like a broken record because you say the things all the time but I say these are things that we must never forget because these are things that we must continue to celebrate. So when we gave every child $500 when they went back to sec when they after after CPEA and they entered form one that's because the government cares. When we ensure that children have laptops that because the government cared we I I just told you that we under enormous financial pressure yet we continue to do it because we cared for the people of St. Lucia. When we're going to pay five C6 subjects for the for the students of this country to ensure that they could further their education, that's because this government cares. When we made sure that over that 100 students will get an opportunity to get a degree at Monroe, that's because this government cares. When we ensure that you got educational support for students going back to school, this government cares. bus subsidiary, food subsidiary. That's because this government cares. Never take it for granted because these things come out of enormous sacrifices and it comes because we love the people of St. Lucia and we love early childhood practitioners. So, I want you to know that this is a government that will continue to invest in early childhood education. I'm coming to the end of my very short contribution and so we will invest in the future already we have about $3.4 4 million to invest in TVET special education and early childhood education development. Another $1 million in early identification learning difficulties. And that's important for early childhood education. As they come to your doors, as they as they come to your centers, as they interact with you, you will be the first to alert us that you believe that there is something different, a learning difficulty with with with this with this student. and we could and we could initiate the proper professional and educational responses to make sure that that child has the best opportunity in their learning and educational and in their educational and educational cycle. Um I just came from a a meeting with with UNESCO and UNESCO has already pledged financial support for us and technical and capac capacity building for early childhood practitioners. That's with that's with UNESCO AND SO >> [applause] >> BUT I ALSO want to tell you as we move to universal access to education that we cannot do it alone. A government policy will only remain a government policy if we do not have your assistance. If you do not engage us in conversation, if you do not engage us in discussion, if we do not have dialogue, if there are times we will quarrel with each other, but we'll be back friends again. and and and what's the best what's the best mechanism to ensure that every child has access to early childhood and I'm very very happy when I heard when I heard from from Miss Bruce contri contribution when she said every time she comes to you and she says let's raise the price you'll be like no no no no we can't raise the price because you're thinking about the parents you're thinking about the communities that the students that the children are from you're thinking about the children and the very fact that you're going to think about the children before you think about your personal profit I will tell you that you have blessings unimaginable that will fall in that will fall in your lives and so as we have those discussions as we have those discussions we'll engage you to ensure that we have the best method the best process and the best mechanism for early childhood education I cannot tell you if the contributions will increase by next year, but all I can tell you is that you have a prime minister that loves you. Thank you very much. First of all, I really want to to thank the staff of the Ministry of Education because you can have any policy that you want as a government. If the civil servants want to slow it down or if they want it to happen in a way that you will regret you ever chose to do it, they can do it. But I want to tell you from my interaction with civil servants [snorts] um particularly as I've been prime minister I found that the civil servants most civil servants most of them and I underline the word most civil servants want to see the country move forward. They want to see the country progress. And I want to put special emphasis on the ministry of education because the ministry of education is arguably the most important ministry in the country and the staff for the ministry of education they have a singular responsibility for the young people of St. Lucia. I want to thank the staff of the Ministry of Education for their dedication and for their flexibility to follow government policy. I want you to give him a round of applause. [applause] And I know sometimes I demand a lot from my ministers and my ministers pass it on to their to their staff. they pass it on. And sometimes when I speak to the education ministers, both Sean Edward who would have been head but he's in Taiwan now and the ministers now um honorable Kenson Casm and Danny Busher. I understand that I'm putting a lot of pressure on them, but I can tell them I will put more pressure on them. And the staff and all and all the ministers, they always come back and they say and they say to me, Prime Minister, the staff are trying. And that's all we want. We want the staff to try. I want the staff to do well. And I want to publicly thank the staff both the executive staff of the ministry of education and the teachers and the principles for what they do as far as education is concerned in St. Lucia. Um the minister said I had a special love for children and and and teachers for for for children incidentally because I only have one and for teachers because my mother taught all her life and I understand the dedication of teachers and teachers at that time were no less know less or more dedicated than t than teachers. Now most teachers they take the children's welfare as if it's theirs. They are more nervous than the children when exams are happening. And I remember one day there there was a quiz somewhere. And I just I had to tell the teacher relax. She'll be all right. Relax. Because she was so she just wanted the teachers want good results. They want the school to do well. They compete fiercely among themselves just for their school to do well and for their children to do well. And that dedication of the education fraternity in St. Lucia and that is why we are improving daily we are improving yearly and we intend to improve more and the government within the limited resources we have the government will give the resources to the education fraternity so that they can continue to improve. So I want to thank them. I want to tell them the government fully appreciates what they are doing. I know sometimes it roughs. It's rough. Some sometimes I put a lot of pressure like my ent school isn't finished as yet [laughter] you know I sometimes I do that. I will continue to do that not because I'm not because I want to give them pressure you know but I want the children of this country to do well. I want the country to do well and they are the ones who have it in the palm of their hands. So I want to thank them and tell them I will continue to ask for a lot more because the country deserves a lot more and we we have the skill in the ministry of education. We have the skill. We have both the academic qualifications and we have both the experience. So all they have to do is to keep their eye on the prize and let us make St. Lucia move forward as far as education is concerned. So thank you very much and let's look forward to BOTH [applause] this morning. We are giving some level of support to the private preschools in this country and I want to tell you early you deserve more. I want to tell you for what you do, you deserve MORE and and the minister tried to set me up. You understand? That's that is the habit. They tried to set me up. But I was speaking to him about a few things that we can do to improve the quality of service that early childhood educators give. And one of them was the ava the availability of water. And I know when you deal with children you need to have water for them. Children you have they need water apart from like to plain water. They like to you have to bathe them etc etc. So we will look into I will ask the minister to look into if we can make available and I see laughing because you know where I'm coming where I'm going. see if we can make available see if we can have some level of water harvesting in the preschools who can accept it. Um so we will see if we can begin as soon as possible in selected preschools where they where the physical infrastructure can accommodate it where they can give you some water tanks for the school. >> [applause] >> And these water tanks will be primarily to harvest rain water. So we look into it. We will I'll ask them again. I given the ministry of education more work. They will have to look into we will not be able to give every school at the same time but we look to see if we can get at least uh I I don't want to give you the give you the dimensions I have to find out whether you can see whether you can selectively begin in certain constituencies and give there are 104 there are 104 private preschools and 44 government preschools approximately so if My arithmetic is correct and I know your PS is a mathematician so and I can say that from experience it's a 138 that's correct [laughter] 138 preschools if you can see whether we can selectively look into getting some water tanks for you for water harvesting that means you have to get get the guttering etc harvesting because I believe that that is a way where we can be sustainable and where we can save resources because [applause] because the minister is very correct. Forecast say that crude oil crude oil the price of crude oil yesterday it was at $18 per barrel $18 per barrel and forecast say that it will remain like that probably until April or May next year between 86 andund $108 per barrel. Now that has absolutely nothing to do with you or with the the children the little children that you attend to. Absolutely nothing to do with them. But they and we are going to suffer for it. So yesterday we had to increase the price of gasoline by 50 cents. It still remains one of the cheapest prices in the region. St. Benson's $18.31 in Dominica is $18 and some cents. We still we have to do it. We had to increase the price of cooking gas by $2 per 20 and and 22 pawn cylinder. And still for that every cylinder of gas that every consumer buys, the government puts in more than $30 in. So you can imagine what would happen if we did not put that $30. nothing. [applause] And sometimes I sit or have sleepless nights thinking about how can we find ways of relieving the people of the of of this country. Our revenue from excise taxes as far as fuel products is is concerned has almost reduced to zero almost at at at yesterday's prices. We still subsidize all levels of cook and gas and gasoline. We actually continue to lose So our revenue sources for fuel fuel are literally nothing. But the country must continue and next year hopefully we'll look because I've given I noticed the minister did not tell you the deadlines he has been given and I don't know whether I don't know whether he so he's told his staff the deadlines he has what he has to do in year two what he has to do in year three because he's a young minister so he had to start pass. So he has some certain guidelines to follow. So when we come in next year, if God be our lives, he will have to he'll have to advise you onto whether he has done the first milestone. We have three >> and the first one is not whether I'll give you more money next year >> but the first one is whether he has done what he was supposed to do in terms of what he has to do for you. >> So I I won't tell you I won't tell let him tell you >> what he has to do as far as the my students are concerned. So we we take early childhood very seriously for for for for good reason. It is said that a child's most important life is from the womb till they reach the age of seven. Some say is even less than that. They say the age of three but the traditional wisdom says age of seven. And you are the ones who have the control of these children from probably two years old and I understand some is even younger, >> sometimes months, sometimes weeks. You have them until they reach the age of going to primary school or kindergarten from kindergarten to infant school and then primary school. So you see how important you are and the child early child education has to be the priority for every educ every education system. That is where and that is why the training of early childhood educators is of paramount importance because you are the ones who have the children at their most formative time in their lives. And with the hotel, with the tourism industry, you will have more of that because parents will have to go to work and live their children in your hands. So, we have to look at the times of for the times that these schools they open because you may have to we have to look at all kinds of things. You may not be able to send send the kids home at 5:00 again. You may not be able to. We may have to look into even a shift system as far as that's concerned because parents stay longer at work. The traffic sometimes creates congestion. So we have to look at all these avenues because you we have to see about the children before they get to a situation where you cannot control them again. And I understand that 3,588 children are going to benefit. 3,588 children are going to benefit. That is important. We are told that our our education system needs to cater for these people. And we are also told that we have our our population is in a state of decline. >> [snorts] >> That is a fact. But what most people tell you is they can't afford to have more children. That's what most of them tell you. Now, what's the government's role? And it pains me sometimes when I see people trying to make what they think is smart or what they think will gain points by trying to to to play when the government says that for every child that is born in this country for now the mother will get a contribution of $1,000. [snorts] The government never said we are giving you $1,000 for big children. Anybody who sells so is deliberately misleading you. What the government said is that the cost of having children or having a baby is very high. We're not saying $1,000 is enough. $1,000 can never be enough. But a $1,000 is better than no dollars at all. >> Amen. >> And the people who complain about it or try to downplay it, they do not need the $1,000 because he who feels it most knows it. They don't need it. So because they don't need it, they will done play it because they don't need it. You understand? But when a mother has a baby and she has to get what they call yet, >> that's the right word. >> And possibly she has to borrow to get delayed. The time will come when she gets $1,000. It will help her a lot. to help her. And what we say is that once you register your your child, I know we had some issues with getting the system to get $1,000 to the children. When um my when my assistant when my vision assistant told me when Monty told me so, I immediately went crazy. I seldom raise my voice. sell them. But when I was told what what has happened there, I got I got on the phone and I instructed that this thing changed immediately. Now I I'm not like that. I know violent but when these things come I have to get I get agitated particularly when I know that people need something and people are suffering because of bureaucratic issues. There are certain things I don't interfere with. Certain things I do not interfere. Certain things in government I do not interfere with at all. I let the system follow its cause. But there are certain things that I have to interfere because it affects people directly. And when it comes to particularly assistance to lower income people, I get I get agitated. So, we dealt with it and we hopefully the $1,000 will go smoothly. Same as a check disbbursement. Normally, we'd have to go to the treasury and get a voucher and have an account. I said no, from the inception, give the people a check so they can go in the bank in the ID card and get the money. No problems. We may advance it to a stage where we can put it on your card. We may get there. We put it on your card so you can collect your money from the bank on your account. And that is where we have to go. So I want to tell you this is just the beginning of support for the early child educators. Just the beginning just the beginning of our support for you. We appreciate what you do. We appreciate what you do. We heard about the violence etc. violence, crime, all these people, they were children. >> Every criminal was a child. There was no criminal who born criminal. He was a child. He had to be nurtured. And the question is, did that nurturing that nurturing cause him good or cause him bad? And that's where you come in. You come in in being able by your experience and by the education and the training that we intend to give you, you can spot these things very early. And I come quickly to special needs, special needs education. Again, very very important because what we did before is we we just castigated children. You you you stupid tattoo wed tattoo wedd that is how we treated our children because they were special needs. There are many children who could not learn because they were deaf. We never knew they were deaf. And incidentally tomorrow I am meeting some deaf children and I'm told that I must learn to speak to them. How I can do that? That's what that's what that is what that is what they do the prime minister just tell him do this do that you might believe it most of my life is people tell me what to do this do that do this. So um special needs children these kids could not hear. So how you can learn if you can't hear? >> The children who had problems if their eyes they couldn't see they some of them were dyslexic. We cannot and this is why we have an emphasis on special education [snorts] an emphasis because if you can get that thing out of the way early. So if you can be able to find very early which child has special needs, which child has has hearing problems, which child has sight problems, you can get in the way early. As you climb the education chain, it will get easier and simpler. So the minister Danny Butcher has to deal with early childhood and special education. And that was deliberate because without special education and early childhood up the education chain is going to be useless. We're going to be wasting our time. going to be wasting our time because you have a set of children who come up come just go through the system and they are not able or not capable. Then we get to the teaching of mathematics. Again I want to urge that we start doing that at the early child stage. teaching children concepts, teaching children numbers, teaching children at that stage. That's that's where you begin to understand mathematical concepts. And you can only do that by training. And this why I urge you when the ministry speaks about the training for you, do not say I accustomed doing that already. You are never too old to get trained. You never too old to learn anything. Never too old. There are things that you you you will you will learn. Every day I learn things every day. And the concept of AI, you learn even more. There even more to learn because at the early childhood level, that's where you can detect the mathematics skills. That's where you detect where you have to you have to you have to make the changes. So I urge you to accept the training when the training is given to you. Accept [snorts] it. And I won't tell the minister of education to be patient with you because everyone will not have the same ability or capability to learn at the same rate at the same pace. [snorts] I'm telling you all that because you're important. Then it comes to civics basic manners. We've be we've begun to lose our sense of manners because we we are developing a society where you think it's right to be angry. My f you have to be angry, a society of anger. We cannot we cannot develop a society of anger. Nor can we develop a society of negativity. Why you tell your children you stupid, you bad suppl? We cannot do that. We have to develop a society of love, a society of positivity, you have to always make our children believe they're the greatest things on the earth. If you develop children always angry, if yourself always angry, if yourself always according to to the the regist, if you always yourself always have a screw face, the children the children will be the same. Sometimes you wonder every year from since I am in politics I have a children's party every year for everybody who is who going to come where you come from just come and what I found is sometimes the parents are the one who encourage the children to behave badly >> go there call game child the parent is a parent but You are the parents for most of the time. So you have to put them in the right path. You have to you have to nurture them. If their parents are not nurturing them, you have to nurture them because sometimes the parent cannot nurture them. you and that is why you want to make life as comfortable for you as possible so you can nurture them. We have to develop a society that is positive. We are leading to a society of negativity. A society where only what we hear is violence, murder, and we encourage it. We cannot we cannot have a society where every time you get up in the morning you're angry and you're looking to fight and that is what is happening if we continue on that trend of negativity. There's never been any perfect situation. All of us in our lives we have situations that we wish never happened. But you cannot walk your whole life always thinking about negative things, always thinking about like me and this and that and you I I'm not trust. We have to develop trust in a society of trust. A society where each one is his neighbor's people. It's it's not going to be perfect. It can be perfect but you have to strive for that level of perfection. So I want to tell you you are very important to the country. You are very important to the society. Not not to me. My job is just to try to use the resources to make available. I am not going to be there all the time. But the children that you that you raise, they'll be there all the time. Most of them. The children. Not me. Not me. Danny may be there longer than me, but not me. the children and that is why the job of education is extremely important. So when we we try to be difficult or when we try to make life unbearable because we believe that you may affect an individual, that individual will go and the children that you n that you nurture, the society that you develop, the society that you build, they'll stay. And when you nurture society that breeds discontent, that breeds criminality, no one can stop it. And that's why early childhood is so important. That's why your job is so important. So I want to thank you. I want to thank you. I want to tell you that the government is going to incrementally make more benefits available to you. We will do it incrementally. I can't tell you what we'll do next because we're not sure what the situation is fiscally in the country. We don't know what happened to the price of oil. We don't know what will happen. But I can tell you incrementally we're going to make your life more comfortable. >> So [applause] I want to to really thank you for what you do. I want to thank the minister of education, the both minister of education. I want to thank the permanent secretary, chief education officer, education officers, the staff and the teachers and principles of this country. Most of them I underline the word again most of them do a great job. Most of them. So I wish you a good term and hopefully [music] we'll see you next year at the same time. Thank you very much. [music] >> [music] [music] >> make. [music] >> [music] >> Oh.