Students on road to MOAS

THE LEARNING process is continually being furthered and extended outside of classrooms. For the students of the University of the West Indies Open Campus Pre-University Centre, learning of the Organisation of American States (OAS) would take them not only outside of their classroom but outside of the TT as well.

A 13-party delegation (composed of two faculty members) will head to Washington for the 35 Model Organisation of the American States (OAS) general assembly for high schools.

The assembly will be held from November 30 to December 2 at the OAS Headquarters, Washington, DC.

This fits right in with teacher Krissy Luke’s belief that learning is more than sitting in a classroom and hearing the teacher speak.

Opportunities like these, she said are necessary for the individual’s overall development. “We need to start having children undergo opportunities like these. There are schools who have been participating for the last 35 years. What have we been doing for the last 35 years?” For Luke, opportunities like these,“provide a simulation of the OAS general assembly and the Caribbean Council and different workings like the committees and working groups for the students to have an understanding of how Inter-American affairs are handled and how organisations like the OAS work. These are the things they care about because most of them are in Upper Six doing Caribbean Studies. These are the things they would have just heard about in the classroom, it is a great opportunity for them, now, to go and actually see how it works.” The delegates were not chosen by Luke but rather came themselves after she posted a flyer asking for those who were interested in international affairs and had a drive for fund-raising. The group’s first meeting took place on June 16 and since then, “we have become close,” she said.

For her students, some of whom dream of becoming ambassadors and diplomats one day, this provides that career path into foreign affairs which she described as no longer being linear.

“On the initial poster I had if you’re interested in international affairs, in regional affairs and you have that inkling. Read more

Source: News Day – Trinidad & Tobago