 The Human Resource Development Unit of the Ministry of Education serves the public in several ways. One of these services includes the verification and certification of educational certificates. Daily, the unit receives a high volume of persons coming in to drop off the academic statement of results or completion of studies documents to get processed and certified a true copy. This is a critical role the unit plays as these certified copies are usually deemed mandatory for persons interested in applying for a job, attending university, or applying for a scholarship. More so, the unit provides this service to the entire nation. Secretary of the Human Resource Unit, Eileen Jules Justin, says as the unit continues to do its work and grow, so too is the backlog of certificates and certified copies that remain uncollected. In some cases, she says, certificates as far back as 2014 remain with the unit. We are urging the public to please collect your certificates because we have certificates in our cabinets for as far as 2014 and I think persons should be more responsible and make it a duty that they collect their certificates because if not then we need storage, if not those certificates may have to be sent to the archives, if not they would have to send names out to the public and let persons know that they need to come to collect their certificates because it's taking up space and we don't want to be responsible for persons' important documents because we already played our part in sampling and we need persons to play their part to collect it. Ms Justin went on to explain that there is a process involved in certifying and to verify in certificates and due diligence is their top priority. She also took the time to clear the air on some misconceptions the public may have with regards to the purview and responsibility of the unit. Pursuit coming and say like, why can't you all do it within a day? Why can't I collect it one time? Like I said before, it's a process. Some may require in-depth research, some may not, where we could just go to examinations and get the information and whatnot, but we have to understand everything is a process and we want to ensure that everything is done correctly and accurately. Also when it comes to our scholarship offerings, some with a public within that we are responsible for selecting persons for scholarships, we are not the ones who make the final decision. It may go through cabinet, it may go through the awarding bodies, but it's not us so we have to understand we're not the ones in the selection. The HRD unit is responsible for processing long term scholarships, economic cost awards and the Sir Arthur Lewis Bursary. They also process Caribbean single market and economy CSME certificates and endorse new educational facilities. In the communications unit of the Ministry of Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, I am Danielle Dubois reporting.