CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – AT a simple but impressive ceremony held at the Joycelyn Liburd Primary School on Monday (Oct. 12), the Nevis Cooperative Credit Union (NCCU) launched Phase Two of its Primary Schools’ Junior Co-operatives Project.
Addressing the gathering, NCCU General Manager Sydney Newton said it was part of a larger project which came on stream in October 2000. That project re-established the junior co-operatives societies in secondary schools after they came to a halt during the 1980s.
According to Newton, the objectives were and still are: to establish school-based cooperative businesses in which the students are the owners, the operators and the beneficiaries; and to provide an avenue for the conduct of savings or thrift among students in accordance with international cooperatives and credit union principles and practices.
That phase involved procuring a teachers’ manual, along with accounting software and desktop computers for the secondary schools.
Newtown said the project was a success at the Charlestown and Gingerland Secondary Schools and, as a result, his organisation was encouraged to launch Phase Two which will computerise the accounts of the primary school’s society.
The schools were supplied with laptops and the QuickBook accounting software.
Newtown also informed that the Credit Union would provide a support team drawn from its Administration, Technology and Accounting Departments. He also said the co-operatives would receive a higher rate of interest.
“Most importantly, the Nevis Co-operative Credit Union will pay to the Junior Schools Cooperatives a higher rate of interest that would allow the cooperatives to pay to the student savers the same rate they would have gotten had they saved at the Credit Union.”
Newtown said he hopes the project would generate an increased interest in savings by students, and would establish a long-term relationship with them where they would transition smoothly from primary to secondary school and then the Credit Union when they leave school.
“This initiative, he said, “leads to the sustainment of co-operatives and the Nevis Co-operative Credit Union in general. It is an investment in the growth and development of our nation’s children’s and is an initiative in securing the financial future of our children.”
Twelve schools – Joycelyn Liburd, Charlestown, St. Thomas’, Ivor Walters, St. John’s, St. James’, Violet O. Jeffers-Nichols, Maude Cross Preparatory, Belle Vue International and the Special Education Unit were presented with the laptops and software. The two secondary schools and the Department of Cooperatives also received similar items. The Lyn Jeffers School did not participate.
Vice-President of the NCCU Mc Levon Tross, during a brief presentation on the history of the Junior Co-operative which was established in 1977, revealed that in the last 12 months savings have reached just under half a million dollars. He indicated that Joycelyn Liburd leads the way with $144,824 while St. Thomas’ and Maude Cross follow with $76,492 and $45,637 respectively.
Tross described Monday as a very important day in Credit Union history since it signalled the easing of the burden on the teacher guides who have been doing the work of the Junior Cooperatives manually over the years.
Also speaking at the ceremony was Cooperative Supervisor Edred Ward and Advisor to the Minister of Education Christine Springette.
Ward, a participant of the programme since its inception, spoke of how he was persuaded to become a teacher guide by his then principal at Gingerland Primary, Gerard Browne.
Springette, who officially launched the programme, said government supports any initiative which would keep young people involved in positive activities. She said saving is one such positive activity. She urged the students to respect money, noting if respect is given to it they would always have.
