Local students honoured for international artistic achievements

By Melissa Bryant
Reporter~SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE accomplishments of Irish Town Primary students Kayla Williams and Levon Liburd at the recent 39th Annual World Schoolchildren’s Art Exhibition in Taiwan were celebrated at a handing-over ceremony yesterday (Dec. 9) at the school’s grounds.

The ceremony was organised jointly by the Embassy of the Republic of China on Taiwan and the Ministry of Education and Youth.

Hundreds of Irish Town students, staff and well-wishers gathered in the school’s conference hall, as did Chief Education Officer Patrick Welcome and Taiwanese Ambassador His Excellency Rong-Chuan Wu, to congratulate Williams and Liburd for their Bronze Medal and Selected awards respectively.

Welcome stated that the students’ success represented the tremendous achievement and growth that the school had experienced over the past two years and commended its teachers and principal for their dedication and commitment to their students.

Ambassador Wu echoed this sentiment, stressing that it was “only by the outstanding guidance by their teachers and parents that [Williams] and [Liburd] were able to achieve such a feat.

~~Adz:Right~~“Although Taiwan is bigger than the Federation in both land mass and population, one thing that our nations have in common is that our parents are very concerned about their children’s education”.

He revealed that there are currently 23 Kittitian and Nevisian students undertaking advanced studies in Taiwan and invited persons to apply for academic scholarships in the near future. He also challenged the Rotary Club of St. Kitts and the Rotary Club of

Liamuiga to implement exchange programmes so that students from the Federation and Taiwanese students could learn more about each another’s culture.

The ceremony also included a musical selection, a poetry piece and a song rendition by several students of the school.
Williams and Liburd expressed their pleasure at being selected as recipients of such prestigious awards and displayed pride and national spirit at representing their country so admirably.

According to a press release from the Taiwanese Embassy, the Exhibition is designed to encourage and forge mutual friendship among the younger generation throughout the world through art exchanges.

This year’s competition featured over 800 pieces of artwork from 56 countries. The Federation submitted 20 pieces of artwork for the Exhibition.