NATIONAL Commercial Bank (NCB) Jamaica, through its philanthropic arm the NCB Foundation, has once again opted to foot the bill for students to sit Principles of Business (POB) and Principles of Accounts (POA) in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examinations.

This is in line with NCB’s mandate to participate in nation-building through supporting education.

“By partnering with the Ministry of Education (MOE), the focus is to advance the United Nation’s 2030 Education Agenda, and in so doing ensure that students leaving high schools are able to meet the minimum requirement necessary to matriculate into a tertiary institution, with the ultimate aim of creating a knowledge workforce,” the foundation said in a release to the media.

As such, NCB has, over the past eight years, supported more than 66,000 students through donations of more than $67 million. This year, more than $9.1 million will be paid to cover the fees of 4,674 students.

Each year under the programme, more than 4,000 applications are paid for by the NCB Foundation for students sitting CSEC POA and POB. Over the years schools, students, teachers and parents have sought to make use of this programme, which continues to provide financial support to high school students across Jamaica.

On November 28, NCB made a cheque presentation to the Overseas Examination Commission (OEC) amidst a gathering of upper-school boys at Jamaica College. The all-boys school was chosen as it boasts the most sponsored students per participating high school in the programme.

Prior to doing the official cheque handover to director of the OEC Hector Stephenson, group managing director for NCB Jamaica Limited Patrick Hylton shared his experience of a defining life lesson and encouraged students to strive for success no matter the odds.

“Never let someone’s opinion of you be your reality, as you are, in fact, the masters of your own destiny,” he said.

Hylton reinforced the point with a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”

Dr Mary Campbell, assistant chief education officer with the Ministry of Education, in her remarks, endorsed NCB’s focus on educational excellence and acknowledged the importance of private/public sector partnership in advancing national development.