‘It’s important to listen to your conscience’

 

Listen to your conscience as it would always tell you when you are going down the wrong path.

 

Speaking with The Barbados Advocate on the sidelines of the St. Michael South Central Transition Seminar at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC) yesterday, Personal Assistant to the MP for the area, Keisha Alleyne said that this is just one piece of advice that she would offer students as they make the transition from primary school to secondary school.

 

Acknowledging that a common fear that students have when entering a new environment is making friends,  she said that they just need to “be open, smile and be kind to someone”.

However, in their quest to make friends, they must ensure that they don’t end up with the wrong crowd.

 

“Your conscience would always tell you when you are about to do something wrong. They have been raised by parents that would tell them not to do wrong. You would have instances where their parents would tell them drugs are wrong, this type of behaviour is wrong, not handing in your homework is wrong. So any friend that would encourage you in behaviour that you yourself know is wrong, you should cut them out, you should stop being friends with that person because they are not leading you in the right direction.”

 

She also advised them to “dedicate yourselves to your work” but also try to enjoy the whole experience of secondary school and to get involved in an extra-curricular activity and this activity does not necessarily have to be active, but anything that would allow 

them to meet new people, develop relationships and learn vital skills such as time management.

 

Alleyne said that the annual seminar is held for the students in this constituency who have just completed the Common Entrance Examination.

 

The topics of discussion include such things as issues that they would face as they enter secondary school as well as other safety measures and practices that the students must engage in not just in terms of being able to stand up to the peer pressures within the school environment, but also being able to protect themselves at home. Hence the topics for discussion included ‘Transition from Primary to Secondary School’; ‘Fire Safety and Prevention’ and ‘Substance Abuse and Addiction.’

 

 

The day, which also included a tour of the Gun Hill Signal Station and the Botanical Gardens, is the brainchild of Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Richard Sealy who started the project long before he took over his ministerial portfolio, said Alleyne.

 

She said that an event like this, which is usually held approximately a week after school is over, is important because the youth would now be amongst older peers who have different attitudes from when they were in primary school.

 

“They leave an environment where they were the top dog essentially and they go into an environment where they are the little fish and the attitudes that you would find a 16 year old would have would not be the attitudes of an 11 year old so it is always very good for them to understand that they would be going into an environment where they would be among more mature students and there would be pressures.”