Education minister gifts young Avatar schoolbooks, tablet
Published:Friday | February 12, 2021 | 12:20 AM
After reading the heartbreaking story shared by 12-year-old student Avatar Muschette, he was presented with schoolbooks and a tablet by Minister of Education, Youth and Information Fayval Williams, who invited him to her offices on February 4.
Williams said after reading his story in The Gleaner recently, the ministry had to act immediately.
“We had to intervene to ensure that your future doesn’t get stunted just because you didn’t have the textbooks or you didn’t have a device. We wouldn’t feel good about that at all,” she told Avatar during their conversation.
“I know that across Jamaica there are many such stories of persons who, for whatever reason, are not able to move forward in the way they want in terms of their educational dreams,” she added.
The minister told Avatar that each day at the ministry they try to clear the hurdles for students to become the best professionals they want to be, such as the young Spring Village student, who wants to become a pilot to fly commercial planes.
Avatar scored an overall average of 83.2 per cent after completing his Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations last year at Spring Village Primary School, which earned him a place at Clarendon College.
The education minister congratulated him for the achievement.
“Congratulations on getting high marks on the PEP, and you can tell other students what you did to achieve high marks,” she said.
In his response, Avatar thanked the minister for the kindness she showed to him.
“I thank you for what you have done. I am grateful for what you have done for me and I am so thankful,” he said.
Avatar’s mother, Charmaine Warburton, also expressed gratitude to the ministry for its assistance.
“I really, really appreciate it. I am so grateful. I thank everybody [who helped],” the single mother of two, who is a trained practical nurse but is currently unemployed, said.
Warburton also has a 23-year-old daughter, who is a student at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, pursuing a nursing degree.
The tablet Avatar received was taken from the National Education Trust (NET) shipment received from the New York Consulate, as a result of contributions from the diaspora.
He also received phone credit from Unicycle Jamaica, which was donated to NET.