 Okay, so a quick thank you to everybody streaming in we'll get started and the clock strikes to here in New Jersey three in St. Lucia But thank you to everybody So far for coming to attend this event we're very much looking forward to an interesting discussion and joy celebration Looks like it is two o'clock now Yep I'll just say the quick words to begin Thank you to everybody for coming Princeton Caribbean Connection is very honored and excited to be putting on this event as the first not only of ours in the new year, but of our relaunch Personally as a St. Lucian, I am very excited to be hosting this event in honor of Sir Arthur Lewis as an inspiration from the same island that I am from Going into the same field that I am interested in going into and making so many incredible contributions to the field and also being the first black professor at Princeton University Which is amazing not only as part of the Caribbean community here on campus that's part of the black community here on campus and so With all of that and you're very very excited and very honored to be able to host this event So close to the anniversary of his birthday and right before the beginning of black history month I'd like to say a quick thank you to all of our panelists who are able to join us here To professor Tigner of the Princeton University history department and author of Sir Arthur Lewis's autobiography and a close friend of his um Dame perlet buizzi The first female governor general of st. Lucia former dean of sir Arthur Lewis community college um, please a springer Chair of the board of governors first Arthur Lewis community college Rowan cian former principal of st. Mary's college and a special thank you to Calyx George Senior and junior my grandfather my uncle For writing the book st. Mary's college Which honors the achievements of so many amazing Sumerians as well as to Elizabeth Lewis and Barbara Lewis The daughters of sir Arthur Lewis. We are so thankful that you're able to be here today as we celebrate your father And so without much more ado Um, I would like to start by allowing professor Tigner to say a few words Um on star through the list Thank you very much A few words Because that's what I have to do but uh, I'm going to uh Say something about the highlights of his career Before he joined the faculty at Princeton University And I know a lot about his time at Princeton And I know a lot about his time elsewhere so um He was born in st. Lucia in 1915 And he was educated locally at st. Mary's college um Which actually produced two Nobel prize winners Amazing Truly amazing um and After that He won a fellowship uh West indian fellowship to go and study at the london school of economics And uh, he finished up his BA degree there and uh He very much wanted to go back to the west indies The british wouldn't send him The colonial office had a great deal of racial prejudice against uh sending anybody back to his his area of expertise and so um He was encouraged by the faculty at lsu to um To join the phd program And he received his phd And became the first black faculty member at lse He was the first of a lot of things He was the first black faculty member at lse He was the first um Black faculty member at the university of manchester he was uh the one and only uh person to receive a Nobel prize for economics um Other the first black individual to receive a Nobel prize um In other fields In any other fields besides peace and uh literature um Derek wall cut also received a Nobel prize in literature So um Congratulations to st. mary's college. Uh, they did a terrific job He then joined the faculty at lse And he was there for four or five years and He applied for positions elsewhere and uh He was recommended for a position at the university of liverpool Unfortunately the vice chancellor Um, um, I would uh hesitate to say this but uh, he was a racist and uh, he did not uh endorse The committee's recommendation That uh, louis joined the faculty their pools mistake was um The um triumph of the university of manchester Where he became a stanley jevons professor of economic development And he was there for a number of years and then he um He also advised the colonial office on during The second world war And after the second world war Uh, which in which he uh encountered some difficulties uh from a Individual who thought himself to be a a superior economist sydney kane It was a very good economist, but not not a nobel prize winner and so he did that for a period of time Then he was unfortunately let go because he spoke about the federation in In central africa And he was critical of the british colonial office And they they released him Then he became um The chief economic advisor to uh, newly independent, uh, guinean state And uh, he was offered Uh, a lifetime contract by kwame and krumah the president of Ghana and and um He did not want to uh be beholden to guinean politicians and therefore he got a Uh the united nations to uh support his salary And that was a very very good, uh Action on his part because he ran into great difficulties with uh within krumah and the politicians who, uh asked him to create a first five-year plan the first five-year plan in uh guinean history and he did and uh the politicians piled on all kinds of interesting other projects That they wanted to be incorporated in the uh in the plan And arthur privately said The plan is now become just awful That was the word that he used awful and uh, but he didn't uh Say that publicly And when he left, um the um position As the chief economic advisor He did not uh display his um His differences with uh the politicians kwame and krumah and the others and so um briefly he was um Without a Really paying job But then he was invited by the university of the west indies uh to become a um A professor of economics in the head of the economics department And all of a sudden there was an opening uh for the principalship of the university Of the west indies the university college of the west indies And so he became the first black principal that had in other words of the university of the west indies and uh And he then When the west indies university of west indies became independent they had been under the aegis of the um university of london He became the first black vice chancellor of the university of the west indies at mono in jamaica and then 1961 62 I believe he uh took a leave of absence from his job at the university of the as a face chancellor of the university of the west indies he um then Was desperate to put together a federation of the west indian British West indian colonies He thought that was the saving grace of the west indies and He wore himself out completely and utterly the doctor came to see him and He was very dizzy Had collapsed on a couple of occasions and the The doctor said to him You have to leave this job in order to retain your health and uh So he agreed and uh That's when he went to princeton university and And he Was teaching there as the first full black professor and a chaired member of the economics department And what was called at the time the woodrow wilson school of public and international affairs until he retired in 1983 I think He received a Nobel prize in 1979 So I I think my time is up And that's this these are the only Highlights that I can mention to you He was a an energetic Spokesperson for Black identity and black causes But he was a pragmatist And not a radical Involvement in radical affairs And he wanted to find out a formula for How newly independent countries could Achieve their prosperity and independence and therefore His most powerful article was The article published in 1952 called unlimited supplies Sorry economic development with unlimited supplies and Probably Was the most influential essay At the time In the field of the new field of development economics Okay, I'm going to end there And thank you very much for listening Thank you so much Professor Tigner Um, I feel that was very important Overview of the life of Starfield Lewis for us to hear Um, it was very amazing and it was very nice to be able to hear about all of his amazing accomplishments Um, next I would like to welcome Elizabeth Lewis and daughter Starfield Lewis to come and say a few words about her father Thank you very much It's an honor to be here My father was very pleased to be part of Princeton University and would be very honored by all of this Uh He had a great love of learning and teaching and Which had developed very early because he started wearing glasses when he was a little boy And therefore games were not all that much fun In addition to which he got ill at about age nine or something like that and Was tutored at home for a few months and then when he got back to school, he skipped two grades So even though he grew to be six feet tall Most of his school years he was actually a little small for his a for his group cohort So he graduated at age 16 and had to wait before being able to go to college uh He got the scholarship and uh Went off to england and with that was the start of A lot of different things in his life He was never deterred by obstacles. He would find ways around them without becoming the bitter Or humble. He was a realist. He looked at what could be done and moved on uh so Yes, there were lots of Blocks in his life, uh professor tigner has Mentioned several of them very well. Thank you and uh But they never got him angry in that sense He was a person who did not share much in uh personally He was more most happy of Reading his history and his economics talking about the politics and economics uh and I remember vividly that if I wanted to spend time chatting with my dad, I would read the economist first Because then we would have something to talk about uh It was a great believer in public education. My sister and I went to the local schools uh In several different countries because as has been mentioned earlier He worked in several different countries and he took the whole family with him So I and my sister ended up going to school in Ghana England Jamaica And here in the state so We had a very diverse Education bouncing back between the british system and the american system But We both made it to college Are doing quite well. Thank you uh They he Stent his time Reading it's where I learned to think of reading as a hobby uh I would from the age of about three I would sit in on the floor in his study and look at picture books and eventually I graduate to actually being able to read the books sitting on that floor And I've always he never said i'm working now go away It was basically i'm working now be quiet Uh listen to the he usually played Mozart or some other classical music while working So listen to the music That's a habit that I took with me to college and wrote a lot of papers to Beethoven's music uh he He and my mother entertained at home rather than No matter what stage he was at uh, whether the house was an official building Or just the Just at home He was always having his students and other professors in He enjoyed spending time uh At home around the dinner table so uh he's He was a very private person, but he was uh As I say a pragmatist And even though he ended up with Over 30 Awards of one kind or another The They did not go to his head I They almost Became a joke. There were so many of them But we were pleased for all of them And particularly when they came from institutions that were close to his heart Like the one from Princeton Oh, that's about it Uh There isn't an awful lot you can say about a private person Um, thank you Thank you so much. Thank you This is Liz Shannon. Um Before we move on um Calix George senior my grandfather has uh recorded a few words about St. Mary's college, um and sir Arthur Lewis and his legacy With regards to st. Lucia and the education there Um, and so I'd like to play the video. Thank you moderator I'd like to play the video for everybody um before we move on to The discussion segment of the event Thank you moderator Ms. Svetlana Johnson president of Princeton university Caribbean connection Dane pullet louisie governor general emerita and chair of the noble laureate committee Sumerian honorable Sean Edwards minister of education Professor Robert Tigner rosengarten professor of modern and contemporary history of Princeton University In fact emeritus professor and also friend and biographer of sir William Arthur Lewis Sumerian mr. Cletus Springer chair of the board of governors of the sir Arthur Lewis community college Mr. Rowan sion former principal of st. Mary's college specially invited guests Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon I am pleased that I could present to Princeton University This small but as I see it significant donation of copies of my publication entitled St. Mary's College St. Lucia West Indies the Caribbean Caribbean's noble laureate school 130 years of human development It was first published by my son Calvin George Calyx, George jr in 2019 on the cusp of the college's hundredth 130th anniversary today's event finds itself within the locus of 107th birthday anniversary of sir William Arthur Lewis a son of st. Lucia an alumna alumnus of st. Mary's College who was the James Madison professor of political economy and later the James McDonnell professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University an institution he gave two decades of his life teaching this devotion to teaching undoubtedly stemmed from his parents who were both teachers trained at the micro institute in Antigua and who had migrated to st. Lucia the latin motto of st. Mary's College is simple yet apt for such a great man sumum attingitur noutendo the top or the summit is reached by striving it must have been a good it must have made good sense for a country with so many hills and mountains on which people toil the soil daily today William Arthur Lewis is interred upon one of those hills the moan overlooking castries where he was born on that very hill too the buildings of what was once a fortress the college in his honor finds a home and called the Arthur Lewis Community College indeed he and his noble laureate twin Sir Derek Alton Walker find their rest amongst ground that was centuries before fought over by st. Lucia's who fought and died for their freedom they fought against the reinstatement of slavery and the economic bondage of colonialism there was indeed much strife at the summit of this mountain St. Mary's College was born in 1890 at the height of British imperialism the college on Miku Street into which William Arthur Lewis entered on the 30th sorry on the 20th of September 1924 was an elitist colonial grammar school patterned after an English the English public schools such as Eaton, Harrow Winchester and Chatterhouse it was not built for the masses of the 26 students who entered in his year only four had government scholarships the other students were all students of means he went to a school headed by English headmasters in a society whose first language was Quayol in some respects he was fortunate coming from an Anglophone speaking family fortune however was not altogether on his side his father died when he was just eight years old the year prior to his entry at St. Mary's he would have known loss he had to be one of the boys to win one of the three government scholarships that were available to St. Mary's the only other available scholarships were provided by the castries vestry and since he belonged to the Church of England he was not eligible some correctly describe the century that preceded emancipation in the western days between the 1830s and the 1930s as a period of stagnation then too there were periods of regression quite often brought on by disasters such as the castries fire of 1927 his parents however who took to the philosophies of Marcus Garvey movement instilled in Lewis a strong desire to break the stranglehold of imperialism as he put it in his biography my interest in development was a product of my anti imperialism he always saw a new opportunity for growth and learning at the age of 14 he had already completed studies at St. Mary's college in fact he had done his junior and senior Cambridge certificates and got distinctions in Latin there was only one way out for boys like himself which was the island scholarship this scholarship was originally instituted by an English headmaster called JD Fisher in 1918 and was afforded just one scholarship a year Lewis was too young to write the exam and had to temper his brilliance for about three years during that time he worked at the Department of Agriculture which was located at the Curator's Lodge in what is known as the Botanic Gardens in a wooden building which still stands today I am of the view that it was at the Department of Agriculture that he first came into direct contact with members of the plantocracy as well as the numerous subsistent farmers of the then expanding peasantry this perhaps consciously or unconsciously led him later in life to write on certain aspects of agricultural development and also to conceptualize the dual economy phenomenon which so shaped his future with his seminal economic development with unlimited supplies of labor and which eventually led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1932 Lewis won the scholarship and went to study what no St. Lucian knew what anything about which was economics he says that in going through as he put it in his own words as I leafed through the University of London Prospectus my eye caught was caught by something called the Bachelor of Commerce degree which offered accounting statistics business law business management economics a foreign language and economic history what was this economics I had never heard of it before and nobody in St. Lucia knew what it was all about that clearly didn't stop him from reaching the top that subtle confidence instilled in him by his mother that said to him that he was as good as anyone else in the world that all he had to do was thrive certainly change the world and gave rise to development economics his conceptualization of development economics based on equality also inspired many of his time to see Africa as a potential place of hope and opportunity his class met Lufa Patterson who won the 1934 scholarship went off to Ghana where he became an advisor to Kwamin Kluwer in Krumah incidentally before he was advisor he taught at a school similar to one of St. Mary's College which was called Atimoto College Louis II was also in the back to Africa movement as evidence by his preparation of the first economic development plan for independent Ghana the thrust towards Africa was first led by Caribbean greats like George Padmore and James and CLR James who incidentally were also associated with Kwamin Krumah Jomo Kenyatta on the the Pan-African Pan-African association in London the Caribbean has always been part of the development conversation and that we can continue to and that we shall continue to contribute to global thought and direction Louis did not just read economics he redefined it particularly in respect of developing countries I hope that this small gesture can spark a renewed affiliation between the Caribbean and Princeton when Sir Arthur always won the Nobel Prize he was the second person from Princeton to have done so in the field of economics today there are nearly 80 Nobel laureates who have been associated with Princeton and last year an unprecedented five laureates were connected with this renowned university likewise St. Mary's College is one of less than 50 secondary schools in the world that can boast of having two or more alumni as Nobel laureates in fact we can boast that St. Mary's has the greatest number of laureates for country population two, the highest number of laureates per school population three the highest number of laureates per square mile and fourthly the highest number of laureates per capita in the world the story of St. Mary's College has certainly been elevated by these two men who always believed that they could break down barriers and strive to the summit I am pleased that St. Lucia and the Caribbean and the Caribbean's stories of excellence can be shared with Princeton University today in closing may I say a special thank you to my granddaughter Svetlana who was born in St. Lucia and is now reading for her first degree in economics at Princeton for making this event possible I sincerely hope a new intellectual triangle can be realized with St. Mary's College the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and Princeton University in memory of William Arthur Lewis I am of the view that such a triandic relationship would be of tremendous benefit to all parties I thank you and happy enlightened reading Thank you to my grandfather, Calyx George Sr for giving us this video to explain more about the legacy of St. Mary's College and new avenues for educational attainment in St. Lucia and in the Caribbean Before we continue into the panel discussion I would like to give some space for Honorable Sean Edward, Minister of Education at St. Lucia to say a few words Thank you very much I bring greetings to everybody from St. Lucia I know some of you are in North America and other parts of the world where you are the most of the atmospheric conditions Let me just take the opportunity to thank the organizers of this very auspicious event for inviting me to be on in my capacity as Minister for Education I must say that today's activity has a lot of significance not just for the Ministry of Education but for St. Lucia as a country Sir Arthur Lewis Community College named in the honor of Sir Arthur himself is the flagship educational institution in our country where we send our children to get an education that would cause them to make significant contributions to development in our country and although many of our children are not able to relate to the work of Sir Arthur as we would like Sir Arthur Lewis's attempt to do when I engage young people is to show them the power in the example of Sir Arthur Lewis himself Sir Arthur Lewis is a reminder an everyday reminder not just for young people but for every St. Lucia that it does not matter your circumstances in life if you have a plan and you are driven nothing in this world you can achieve anything you set out to achieve and when we walk through and we drive through the various communities in St. Lucia today many of our students are living lives that Sir Arthur Lewis a life similar to what he had as a child growing up he was not privileged from what we've been told he had to work hard and in spite of all the obstacles that he had in his path he was able to obtain the highest possible achievements in his chosen field so the example for young people the example for our country is not restricted only to the realm of academics but it speaks more to the willpower of the average St. Lucia and for me everyday it's not the economic theory that was postulated but just the measure of the man in terms of how he was able to overcome adversity how he was able to put up against racism how his personal circumstances in life did not impede what he set out to achieve for himself and ultimately for us as a country is the reminder that smallness of size should never be an obstacle in your quest to attain greatness sometimes we speak of St. Lucia in comparison to other countries of the world and we're just a dot we're just a dot on the world map but we should never ever be measured by the geographic dot that you see on a map the geographic landmarks of St. Lucia is not what really defines us but Sir Arthur Lewis is the example that went into every nook and cranny of this world reminding not just St. Lucia's from smaller societies that he can set out to achieve anything that they put their mind to and that is the example that I want the young children in our school system to emulate Sir Arthur Lewis example and if Sir Arthur could have come out of St. Lucia and could have overcome all the obstacles and the barriers that were put in his path and he was still able to overcome those to become the great statesman that he was not just for St. Lucia and the Caribbean but the world I believe our children have an example that is very close to whom that they can emulate in their quest for greatness irrespective of their chosen field so once again I'm very very pleased to have been invited to be part of this auspicious activity for the commemoration of Sir Arthur Lewis and as I said I'm just hoping that his legacy will continue to live on and be an example for all the citizenry in St. Lucia. Thank you very much for having me and I look forward to a very engaging afternoon on the different issues that will be discussed here today. Thank you so much on your words that was a very impassioned speech and I think that it speaks to a lot of what is really impressive about Sir Arthur Lewis and about Lucian education and Caribbean education in general and the ways that it can take people from very small beginnings and elevate them and give them power to forge new paths and so I would like to continue on into the panel discussion about Caribbean education and Lucian education at large and so as a quick reminder to our audience we have many amazing panelists here. Dane Perlett-Lewisi the first female governor general of St. Lucia and the former dean of Sir Arthur Lewis Community College Rowan Sion former principal of St. Mary's College Cletus Springer the chair of the Board of Governors for Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and so without much ado I would like to open the floor up for a panel discussion and remind the audience that please feel free to ask questions and use the Q&A function not the chat function to do so so I think that I'm going to start off and ask a question and just because you've heard so much about the power of education on Sir Arthur Lewis's life I'd like to ask our panelists what do you think is unique about education in St. Lucia and feel free to unmute yourselves to respond Mr. Sion I see that you're speaking but unfortunately you're muted can you unmute yourself please yes can you yes right unique about education I think the obvious thing we start by saying is that we are bilingual for one thing we have the advantage from one perspective and another from other people's point of view a disadvantage they may think of having a society where the language of education is not necessarily the language that's used in everyday communication by very large percentage of our people so we find ourselves having to deal with this language issue where in the rural parts of St. Lucia there are many people who may not have mastered the major language as well as might have been so there's always this challenge I must say of late it has been turned into an advantage but perhaps not as rapidly as it could have been then there have been moves of it to to utilize the Creole language as part of the educational process but that has gone very very slowly but I think if we have to highlight one aspect of a solution education that's unique it would be related to the bilingual nature of our society unique in a Caribbean context I should say because that's not necessarily anything around the world but certainly the islands are on us even Martinique which is French 100% English we have this distinction of the bilingual thank you yes thank you Dane Perlet would you like to say anything I'm sorry it seems that you're muted as well would you please I was I was not mutating I thought I'm having a problem I'm having a problem with feedback that's coming from I hear this well it seems like you have two devices on if you can turn off one of the devices it might limit the in the meantime there you are my bandwidth was low so I had a problem yes I was very and I'm interested in what Mr. Sian just spoke about because a lot of people know my interest in Creole and in the promotion of Creole particularly in our education system and I do recall Professor Simas McDonald's research into the educational outcomes of students in St. Lucia and which tend to show that that problem with going into school and being expected to perform in a language which is not their own which is not their first language which they don't even speak at home has has poses a lot of problems for them and perhaps if St. Lucia embraced the concept of bilingual education that would you know foster a more you know openness to language to language development and to academic performance so I'm glad that Mr. Sian brought that up I don't know that as far as uniqueness in other ways I think we have not done too badly in the sense that we have been able you know to provide even in our small with our small population an institution of of learning at the tertiary level which on the South East Community College which which is probably you know comparable to quite a few community colleges not only in the region but in other small developing countries so I think in our case really it's probably a question of resources and if we could get beyond that I think we would be able we could stand our own anywhere as far as education is concerned so we have a good quality education and I say that because you know I've studied I mean in the Caribbean in Canada and in Bristol and I didn't find myself or even my students they didn't seem to have been at much at a disadvantage when they you know among you know students from all over the world and they performed you know admirably I remember saying to some of my students who would write and say miss I made it on the dean's list and I said what you know I said what kind of students do you have out there and they would laugh which only shows that the foundation which which St. Lucia gave them and we can see that with the two audience and with we are celebrating and commemorating today Thank you Mr. Edward I see that your hand is raised would you like to see a few words on the topic Absolutely and I do not want to speak out of tune because Mr. Sion would have been my principal at the St. Mary's College so I want to make sure that whatever I say this afternoon is a true reflection of what he would have taught me on the subject of language as mentioned by Mr. Sion I think this is a very important point and I think Mr. Sion will also mention it I think a case is being made now for the inclusion of the French West Indian which we call Patois into mainstream education as far as lesson delivery is concerned this has not happened but as we speak there is a language policy paper that is in draft form and the intention is for the formal education system to begin to embrace Creole in instruction delivery it may not and the intention is not for it to replace English as the official language and the preferred language for instruction but Mr. Sion made a very important point we have a vast majority of solutions particularly in the rural parts for whom Creole is still a first language this is the first language for them and at every step in society in every facet Creole has been pushed aside and we saw in the mid 1990s a case was made for Creole to be spoken in the parliament I think that was a very important first step but I still believe that we have some distance to travel for there to be a full incorporation of French West Indian Creole in the lexicon of Saint Lucia in terms of the education that we present to the world and we present to our students the question has been asked what really is education and the impolite just moments ago mentioned how her students meet her and both she and her students they beam with confidence and pride when it is announced that they have made the deans list at some of the most prestigious schools in the world and that is commendable and the example of Sir Arthur himself and Derek Walker and there are so many outstanding solutions in the academia who continue to cause our country as a collective to punch above its weight I mean that is commendable there is no question that we are comparable to people from any other country in the world but the question has to be asked is education merely having content in lesson delivery that is at the same level as what obtains in more developed countries or should it be a combination where the content is aligned our students can take international exams and outperform some of the counterparts in the metropolitan countries that is established but to what extent do we appeal to the core of our students to what extent does the education that we and we teach to what extent does it appeal to the core values of our young people every day we turn on the television set to watch the evening news we see the number of young people who are involved in criminal acts and we ask in ourselves some of these very students they would make the deans list they would top the exams at the school level and they would rank amongst the best in the country but when you do a little more and research in terms of the background you notice there are some of the same young people who are engaged in some of the most unsavory acts in society so for me the education has to be more than just attaining impressive results and being able to command places at the most prestigious institutions but we want that at the end of that educational journey from kindergarten rightful to university level and as our citizens they acquire skills and knowledge commensurate with that would be the values that are needed to make them coexist peacefully and progressively with their fellow men in solution society and whatever else in the world they may choose to reside I just think I needed to make that point thank you very much thank you Mr. Spring I see that you have your hand raised as well in addition I want to give some time to the questions that we see coming in from our attendees and also answering I think it sort of fits into the question that we were talking about before how do you think the standard of education in St. Lucia has changed from the early part of the 1900s when Sir Arthur was educated to now in the 2000s and if so how Mr. Spring here yes thank you very much and good evening everybody I think I recognize the presence of the Honourable Prime Minister among our participants so I want to see a special good afternoon to him for joining us the confluence in the questions and the question in the chat and the comment I was about to give is pretty stark because I think there's a temporal nature to the education that existed at the time of Sir Arthur and the education that exists now I remember doing a documentary on Sir Allen knows Sir Arthur's brother and there was a point in that he did his law degree by correspondence costs in Sir William Cooper and several other luminaries in St. Lucia and I make that point to indicate that I'll report a point that Minister Edwards was making that when you have adversity or when you have challenge you rise over it and so you have people like Sir Allen who did not have access to university education but got his degree via correspondence which was the norm in those days because access to food education did not exist and then you have Sir Arthur now who was brilliant enough to get an island scholarship which was a rarity in those days and in the post-South period in the days of when we were part of the colonial system as well as in the days of our independence both pre and post-independence we had access to a whole range of opportunities to go to study overseas through a whole range of sponsors, the Canadians the British we had scholarships that we could pursue another interesting distinction between the two periods was that because my mind all the time the quality of teaching in those days seemed to me to have been of much higher quality although our teachers at the time did not have formal teaching qualifications and so you speak of the foundation that Sir Arthur always received that foundation came by and large from teachers who were not formally qualified so to come to Sir Arthur I see Sir Arthur Lewis Community College as helping to bridge that divide of opportunity and to make tertiary education available to every solution who does not have access to scholarships, internationally provided scholarships and so on and that is where I believe the government has already pledged that it will be for the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College increases investment in Sir Arthur because I think across the board investment in higher education in the Eastern Caribbean lags significantly behind investment in the bigger Caribbean countries Jamaica for example is investment in higher education is almost four or five times than a solution and so we need to do a lot of work to increase access to higher education as well as solutions for that answer it does seem that we have run to the end of our time limit I do want to give up one more question for the panel but I think is relevant to our discussion and to what we're celebrating so from Cornelius Rene considering that educational opportunity is more widely available in St. Lucia now than it was when Sir Arthur Lewis and Sir Derek Walcott were schooled does the panel believe that St. Lucia can produce another Nobel laureate Hi if I may be allowed Hello Yes Mr. Sion Yeah right Yes that's Strangely enough that's the question that we once had a major discussion on at St. Mary's College I just want to make one point before it's specifically answered I just want to perhaps say can use this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Sion Edwards on the position of the Minister of Education in St. Lucia he was quite correct I did teach him at St. Mary's and he's one young man who demonstrated the very qualities that he's talking about Sion didn't come from any particularly well off background he climbed the difficult ladder and is now the Minister of Education and he himself I think is a good example for what is possible he used sport he was an outstanding cricketer and that was how he actually made an impact at the school at St. Mary's College and through the sports side of course his academics as well I think is able to establish the confidence and presentation that you're hearing from him right now because he didn't come into school like that that is something that grew as he went through the years of the school largely because of his involvement in sports and this is one area that I think has not been utilized fully the confidence of our young people has to be boosted in whatever way that they have natural talent he mentioned the fact that we have people who are engaging in savory activity although they may be doing well at school and that is a fact it is a fact it is an unfortunate fact and I think the solution there is to find out what these people really want to do for themselves as well a lot of them are talented in areas that may not necessarily be purely academic and I think if the Minister recognizes that in his own situation he had this talent in sports that enabled him to blossom as a young man and therefore develop academically out of the foundation of sports so that is one area that we should not underestimate and I was very pleased when I and the study has been made minister of education because I think his own life is an excellent example of what can happen to many young people if they are given the correct guidance and Samaritan College has to take a little credit for that and I think the scholar George would be pleased about that now going back to the question of the what are we going to do? Well that is an interesting one we already broke so many records in having two out of such a small school but nothing is impossible there are so many brilliant young men in the area the young men now who at MIT were doing excellent work there there was talk about I think Dr. Winston Parris was doing some important work in pain management and so on he is being cited in some time ago as one potential candidate I don't want to be calling to many names of course but I think it's always possible we just have to keep doing what we do well and what we do well is developing young men selling them out in the world and excel in wherever we go it's perhaps a little more competitive now because you have a different focus with the high perhaps competitive nature of the educational situation but I think it's quite possible and I look forward to some young men from Samarit College again in the not too distinguished being included at least in the shortlist of possible Nobel Prize winners Could I just say something then Mr. Pion? Sure Of Nobel laureates as young men and men Oh there Sorry about that but you know for those who don't know Samarit College is an institution exclusively focused on young men and the employer that comes from the other institution focuses on young ladies so she will be concerned and I suspect I know what she is going to do Okay That's a short I think this is why one of the reasons why we celebrate Nobel laureates Festival every year I mean first of all yes is to honor our laureates their life work, their achievements but also I've always made it a point that is it gives us an opportunity to to nurture challenge and get persons to look deep down within themselves and excel in whatever field of endeavor so that is why our theme has always been celebrating excellence and it may not necessarily just Nobel laureates but if you try to be excellent in every field of endeavor there is there is perhaps no reason there is no quota on the number of Nobel laureates per country but what we need to do is to understand that we need to celebrate ourselves, celebrate our achievements great or small and then incrementally we could build on that and who knows yes there is the possibility that a better solution could become a Nobel laureate and I think the field has been broadened a bit in the Caribbean because there is now the Caribbean the laureates Yes that's correct we need to and some initiative where you have people who have excel in different fields maybe if the Nobel committee expands the areas in which they can award the Nobel Prize I think it has been a bit restricted and it has been so for such a long time I'm sure the time has come for the the Nobel committee to look at broadening the areas of specialization that people can aspire to as well as the Nobel laureates Nobel Prize is concerned yes that's what I thought I had to do on behalf of the Nobel laureate first of all celebrated excellence very good I thought you highlighted the possibility of the Nobel Prize as well why not the Nobel Prize but ladies of course absolutely I totally agree with that can I help you to leave you can I make a quick point yes Mr. Springer yes I wanted to say that one of the areas that I believe is central to expanding the range of opportunity for our students and for our people generally is for us to create a more inquisitive student as a citizen I think the power of inquiry is critical for us to advance in education and any other sphere of life and connected to that I think there's a role for research applied research so Arthur did a lot of that which led to his groundbreaking study but I do believe that that is a weakness in our education system where we are perhaps not producing as many inquisitive thinking people as we probably need to I remember as a boy when we played around we always look for different ways of doing things different ways of building a truck different ways of building a tent and I see that element oozing out of our economic of our education system and I believe we need as a country to get some more thought into how we can produce an inquisitive minded citizen Yeah and in a case that's a vital point because right now the dominant type of activity which young people engage in tends to be the ready-made technological equipment the games the video games and so on there's much less of the outdoor individual type activities where you talk about making a kite and making them that was more creative, more innovative and it's going right now we import our games and the games are created for us by other people so there's this restriction in the lateral thinking concerning even the very games that we engage in as children and they start off from three years old playing the video games which suppresses the possibility of the individual creative thinking that could have come out of making your own type of toy the kites and the trucks and so on so you're making an excellent point there that's where we have to consciously introduce that aspect into the curriculum where people can, the youngsters can be given a chance to explore their own thoughts and see what capabilities they have in terms of creativity I totally agree with that and I think with that thought on increasing the inquisitive nature of Saint Lucian students I do think that that's a very interesting point and something that we can maybe continue in a different discussion because unfortunately we have gone over time in the future I hope that maybe we can continue this discussion with a little bit more time allotted to so many amazing panelists I see that our audience members we're very engaged and so I want to thank our audience members again for coming and give a quick thank you to all of our panelists. I just want to be really cognizant of time because I know that many people have other engagements so I'd like to say thank you again to all of our amazing panelists for coming and joining us in this discussion and this celebration and for engaging in such a thoughtful and interesting conversation about the state of education in Saint Lucia both in Saint Mary's College and in Saint Joseph's Convent I would also like to give a thank you to the Prince University African American Studies Department for co-sponsoring this event to my fellow board members on Caribbean Connection and I'd like to give a personal thank you to my grandmother and my, to both of my grandmother's who were both educators in the Caribbean and who in their own way have contributed to Caribbean education and to the knowledge that I have of Caribbean education and so thank you again to everybody for joining us here today I hope that everyone had a good time and I would once again like to say that I would appreciate to continue this conversation some other time but if our panelists have any final words that they'd like to say before we leave I am open to that because I know that we're in the middle of a very spirited discussion just a quick word to say to follow up on the point that that Alex George Sr. made about the triangular the possible emergence of a triangular relationship between Princeton so after Lewis Community College and St. Mary's College this is something that the Board of Governors of the after Lewis Community College is very eager to pursue and so we're looking forward to future opportunities for us to advance on that course thank you On that note about the contributions of Alex George Sr. I'd like to say again that thank him for donating the books St. Mary's College to Princeton University I know that would be a very important contribution to our discussions on the impact of the Caribbean here at Princeton University and even though I cannot give these in person right now due to all the restrictions I do think that is a very important contribution and these books will be given out soon so thank you again to everybody for joining us I hope that you all enjoyed this discussion and like I said I really look forward to continuing this some other time thank you and have a nice day goodbye thank you thank you very much bye