PM: I did badly in school

Monday, July 2 2007

Prime Minister Patrick Manning said discipline needs to be harnessed if persons want to overcome obstacles on the way to success.

He was speaking at the Youth Training and Employment Partnership Programme (YTEPP) graduation ceremony for two trainee cycles on Saturday at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Sports and Physical Education Centre (SPEC), St Augustine campus.

Manning explained that most persons are taking for granted things that many years ago were not available to the Trinidadian population. “My mother had to beg for me to get into primary school but now every child is entitled to a place in primary school,” he said.

He added that he had to pay for both secondary and tertiary level education which are now free to qualified candidates. Manning said it was true that many young people are not doing well in school. He added though that this was not a result of a faulty education system, poverty or like hindrances but of individuals not taking the time to engage the discipline needed for success.

He said for the first three years of his secondary school life he did not do well in his exams. “I did so badly that my father was moved to say that I was not a credit to the family but not in those exact words,” he said.

In his first end-of-term examinations in his fourth year though, he said, he topped the class with the help of a rigorous study regime.

“It did not happen overnight or by accident, it happened because I decided to become disciplined,” he said. He said in the end he was the first member of his family to obtain a degree.

He also told the audience that at one time his mother sent him to school in one of his sister’s frilly shirts because she did not have any shirts to give him. “Of course the boys at school had a good time at school that day, but I had to go to school, I could not tell my parents, especially my mother, I was not going,” he said.

Manning said that those who failed have not applied themselves and if they don’t succeed, they have no one to blame but themselves. He advised the 3,463 graduates that whatever they may face in their lives, it is up to them to make the best of it.

What a cont. We know he did badly as fockin school. It doh take ah genius to figure that out.

What he really trying to tell all the niggas out there is look. We want votes to win elections. We will keep you disciplied by givin you free fockin handouts through all these nonsensical fockin begging programs. YTEPP, CDAP,YAPPA, PAPPA, MAMMA and whatever.

So you niggas, just implement some discipline, fock school and education and we will give a spankin brand new whacker and a lil hundred here and there.