Ninety-four students, awarded scholarships to study in Cuba, are set to fly out with a strong warning to behave themselves ringing in their ears.

President Bharrat Jagdeo told them yesterday to play and have fun but only within the confines of decency and the laws of the host country. His warning was endorsed by Minister of Public Service, Jennifer Westford who made it clear that indiscipline would not be tolerated. She insisted that once a student was found guilty of breaking the rules they would be brought home.

On February 23, a third-year agronomy student, Rajkumar Tularam, who was on a scholarship in Cuba, died when his motorcycle reportedly crashed into a car. Reports were that, Tularam of Essequibo was under the influence of alcohol.

The students were chosen from nine regions and will be pursuing careers in the areas of: engineering, medicine, medical science, agronomy, veterinary medicine, agricultural science and mining. Out of the 94 students, one comes from Region One, eight from Region Two, ten from Region Three, 47 from Region Four, two from Region Five, 15 from Region Six, three from Region Seven, three from Region Nine and five from Region Ten.

Delivering the charge to the awardees at the Umana Yana, Jagdeo said that despite the scarcity of financial resources one area which had not been neglected over the years by his government was education.

But he added that the most challenging issue had been that of the scarcity of skilled resources. “We have lost too many people to foreign countries. Today we have probably 600,000 people who live abroad and we have 750,000 who live here.”

He said even though many had left because of hard economic conditions, they were on a drive to reunite their families and as such more people were leaving the country.

Jagdeo said such a situation was holding back development which had forced his government to embark on a programme to train its citizens.

He told the audience that his government spent about $16B per year on education, equivalent to 20% of the country’s revenue.

Jagdeo said while the government was focussing on primary education and universal secondary education, it had to still send some students abroad. He said the largest student population was in Cuba.

“For this we are very grateful to the government of Cuba, for Cuba is a developing country, Cuba has many needs too, Cuba is faced with a very difficult environment, yet it has given us these scholarships.”

He mentioned that on a state visit to Cuba a few years ago he had asked President Fidel Castro to increase the number of scholarships and they had settled on a figure of 350 over a particular period.

Jagdeo also called on the awardees to recognise that the government was making an investment in them on behalf of the taxpayers.

“Therefore I urge you to return and serve your country, for you now have an obligation to the Guyanese people.”

Among those who attended the seminar were: Jose Inclan Embrade, Cuban Ambassador to Guyana, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon and Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green.