KINGSTON, Jamaica – Students are being urged to stick to their studies and to not get side-tracked with social media hype at the cost of their education.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Alando Terrelonge, who made the call, said success in schoolwork is something that “no one can take away from you”.

He noted that the relevance of videos posted for excitement fades easily, but education endures.

“Your education stays with you until you die. If you want to get caught up in TikTok fame, what you will realise is that the TikTok video is going to get old; it might be deleted, and after two days nobody is going to remember that you had a video,” Terrelonge pointed out.

He was addressing a recent service held at the St Andrew Parish Church in Kingston to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Half-Way Tree Primary School.

The State Minister pledged $100,000 towards the school’s science laboratory.

Terrelonge, who is a past student of Half-Way Tree Primary, said the education that he received at the institution “has served me well throughout my lifetime”.

He said the institution taught him that “whatever you dream, it can happen, but you have to be disciplined enough to work hard to achieve it”.

“It was at Half-Way Tree Primary School that I also learned that ‘silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay’,” he said while calling on the students to value education over material possessions.

“If you want to talk about the Clarks shoes, if you want iPhone 10, they are going to have iPhone 50 going to 60, but your education stays with you forever,” he said.

Terrelonge hailed the educators for their contribution to the empowerment of students and nation-building.

“It is their contribution as educators, in building us, and encouraging us as young kings and queens, that has contributed to Jamaica’s growth and development as we have seen over the years,” Terrelonge said.

-JIS