As the Common Entrance Examination draws near Grade 6 students of the Gordon & Walcott Memorial Methodist School received a timely presentation on “Procrastination and Productivity” by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council. This was one of the activities of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s mentorship programme.
The Gordon and Walcott Memorial Methodist School has been adopted by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) as a mentorship school under its community outreach programme. The mentorship programme seeks out avenues for the school and ECCB to work collaboratively to improve student performance and confidence. The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) was invited to speak to the grade 6 students of the school on the topic ‘Procrastination Kill Productivity,’ as they prepare to write the Common Entrance Examination. ECCB’s Resident Representative and Country Manager in St. Lucia is Sheran Ferdinand.
“We have a programme in place but the good thing about it is that you are given the leeway to do what works for you in country. So in St. Lucia because of the amount of stuff they have during the term, Ms. Gabriel and I, the Principal of the school, found it easier to collaborate in areas that she needs assistance… Now I had seen your programme on TV where you had done the procrastination presentation for a secondary school and so I reached out to your unit to ask them if they would like to collaborate.”
Communication Specialist with the NPCP, Glen Simon said raising productivity levels requires the involvement of all stakeholders with students being a key stakeholder. He added the topic Procrastination Kill Productivity though a simple one has profound implications on one’s goals, aspirations and level of success.
“My presentation really focused on how to get them to recognize not to put off the things you can do now for later as it will affect them in the future. They can start off together in this place but they will not end up in the same place just because of their level of productivity, their level of focus and I hope that it made an impact. Because what we want to do at the Productivity Council is help increase the productivity levels within the country and we can get it by focusing on students who are stakeholders within the society on how they can improve their productivity, how they can improve it by reducing their procrastination we would love that because the society as a whole would benefit.”
Grade 6 Teacher, Diane La Force noted that the presentation was apt for her students who she said need to focus now more than ever in preparation for the common entrance examination.
“It’s timely because the students they’re just preparing for the exam in the next few weeks and I believe that looking at the videos and listening to what you had to say to them this morning they would realize that procrastination really affects their work and if they don’t begin working now they will not succeed in the future.”
Grade 6 Students Lamazes Edwin and Destiny Duncan expressed their views on what they gathered from the presentation.
“It will help me because now I know that when you procrastinate you don’t do very well at school because you will always be putting off practice to be better at what you’re doing.” Edwin said.
“Since I have gotten the presentation I believe that procrastination is not a very good thing and when you procrastinate you don’t get any work done. So it’s a lot harder to focus and understand what the teacher is talking about at the time.” Ducan stated.
The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council was established to identify the key issues related to competitiveness and productivity in St. Lucia and provide timely and effective recommendations to policy makers, the private sector and other stakeholders.