 Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker and let me thank you immensely for just sitting here and staring at you and of course my heart warms and I feel extremely happy that you were placed in a position to stay the house this morning. If your smile and your grace, I thank God for that responsibility that you are charged with this morning and of course need to say thanks for the Prime Minister and leadership of this government to see the wisdom in having a Deputy Speaker. Mr. Deputy Speaker, I do rise to support this motion that is before us, the borrowing of such an important amount and of course I think of it in the context of borrowing for our people, borrowing for educating and moving our people forward. Mr. Speaker, my contribution will be brief but I want to capture it from the basis of what I learned at church from a basic instruction from Solomon in Proverbs 22 verse 6 and it reads that train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Of course most times when theologians speak about training they probably would be thinking of the values of seeking God which is also applicable or the context of actually seeking God wisdom but also in those days training up a child also meant improving their abilities and talents and while today in our world that we do not arrange training like it happened long ago even in our back in the 60s 70s when I grew up you could have gone to a tailor or a carpenter or to a mechanic and learn the trade today these things are institutionalized where you must attend some arranged way of training and therefore the amount being placed or the amount being provided under this motion is to ensure that we continue to invest in our people. Mr Speaker there's a saying that I learned at primary school speak the truth and you must speak it always cause it what it be and this morning I just want to remind you Mr Deputy Speaker that some time ago when I was in opposition I had the occasion to speak with a member from the other side and I was surprised as at a statement that was made on the matter of youth unemployment and the member indicated that one of the problems with youth unemployment is because we invested this country in universal secondary school education that statement was made I remain quiet but a deputy prominent secretary was present met me days after and said to me I said to listen to the statement made and he said but I was surprised you said nothing I was shocked that a parliamentarian or member of government indicated that the issue with youth unemployment is because we had invested in universal secondary school education the argument was being made that because children had the opportunity to go to secondary school education they were not interested in learning skills and I reflected on it I reflected on it and I asked the then deputy prime minister so because I want to be a carpenter that I should not understand pyphagoras theory that the square root of three squared plus four squared is equal to five and that you can square the corner of a house by using measurement only pyphagoras theorem can allow you to square up a house because pyphagoras show you that a square plus b squared is equals to c I ask myself why would someone believe that universal universal education secondary school education would limit the abilities of persons so what we have found ourselves in is an issue that is global regional where a lot of the economic dynamic dynamics has allowed persons to find themselves unemployed particularly our youth and this investment of our young people would allow persons to become employable would provide opportunities mr speaker but mr speaker this has been in the con it is happening when you you take into consideration the focus that this government has on the youth and we came up with the idea of the youth economy we are thinking of the young people of this country in a way that has not happened in the past we are not just giving lip service but the youth economy why would you think of the youth economy because we are concerned about unemployment and we want to give opportunities to young people but how do they take opportunities when you set up the youth economy by providing training to them because yes you have a cxc in mass and of course I know at some point in time this the minister of education will provide support and will speak to how we are engineering the educational system but of course we will see how we will link all of these things coming together so mr speaker there is a big difference in what has happened in the past and what we're trying to do that your direction is important where we are headed so of course yes we will equip our young people with abilities so that they can seek they can be innovative and we are starting to see a lot of this happening a lot of the young persons I am seeing coming to me in my constituency are looking for small business opportunities they are also interested in providing training even when they had their dropout experience at secondary school they are willing to take up the opportunities if presented to them and I usually applaud those persons and I go out of my way and say to them any person whether you are uwslp you are interested in continuing education at this time I will find on the cdp to help you as a matter of fact I think I may have used more of the resources towards investing in young people to provide them with opportunities we understand that there is a difference between education and concrete there is a difference between education and asphalt concrete or Portland concrete you understand concrete with a hurricane and with the turbulence of water can be washed away of course and if we have to remove everybody from this country because it's damaged because there's no concrete to drive on you can leave this country get on a boat get on a flight and live with your education that is why we invest in our people that is how you create resilience of a population that is yes that is how you create hope for the future that is how you ensure that there is a greater tomorrow so of course mr. speaker this country believe that there is a fundamental difference between education and concrete and of course and while we understand that some persons will complain about the state of roads it is not today two and a half years in power mr. speaker mr. deputy speaker one would ask why are the roads in such a condition and when you take the exponential degradation of our roads this thing did not happen overnight roads do not just this a damage instantly because there's a new government in power there's a chemical reaction that takes time and is progressive until you find the roads in this condition but it seems as if we are the ones responsible no we accept the responsibility because we empower but of course we are taking our time and we'll correct it but we will not leave our young people education behind and that is why we are investing every cent we can strategically to ensure that there is a better tomorrow for our people mr. speaker i really want to emphasize the point that while persons speak about crime and violence and of course as if some persons have become crime experts we are not crime experts the police are what we are concerned about is our young people we are concerned about them in terms of their welfare we are concerned about them in terms of providing educational opportunities we are concerned about them in every aspect of their life while the police will be equipped with their resources to do their work this cabinet will continue to find resources to invest and provide opportunities for people so mr. speaker i rise to support this important borrowing and the funds i know is in the hands of an able minister of education i know that the the cabinet of ministers that rally around that borrowing is actually representing every sector that is important i support and i applaud all cabinet ministers this morning in this chamber for housing support for the ability to strengthen our roads our minister of of agriculture you know in providing the support that is needed the minister of education tourism and our dear prime minister this morning may god bless our effort as we continue to use the resources of the state to push our population forward thank you mr. speaker