MANDEVILLE, Manchester — A fund-raising dinner held last year in aid of the Dean Alexander Peart Scholarship Fund has allowed for the first disbursements this school term to four students from communities in North-West Manchester.

The scholarship fund honours former member of parliament for North-West Manchester Dean Peart (People’s National Party), who retired from active politics in the lead-up to the 2011 election. Peart had served for 22 unbroken years as MP. He was also a cabinet minister and prior to entering parliament, was mayor of Mandeville.

Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) awardee Alecia Roberts who has moved on from Mile Gully Primary to Mile Gully High and Rojay Clarke of Coley Mountain Primary and now at Manchester High each received $15,000. The financing will continue for five years if acceptable academic performance is maintained.

Kadi Meeks is at the University of Technology pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She is the recipient of $60,000 annually for two years with similar expectations as the GSAT awardees.

Syomaro Bailey, a resident of George Reid district and upper sixth former at deCarteret College, received $30,000 towards her expenses for the year.

As MP for NW Manchester, Peart is reputed to have ensured the provision of financial and moral support to students and for establishing and improving on the physical infrastructure of many educational institutions.

His successor, Mikael Phillips, and others have pledged to continue Peart’s work through the scholarship fund.

Phillips, Peart’s sister Christene Peart-Steele, son Dean Ernest Peart, Clarendon Custos William Shagoury and Manchester Justice of the Peace Karlene Thompson are trustees.

The funding for the four recipients this year was made directly to the respective educational institutions.

Phillips used the recent awards ceremony at the Battersea Community Centre in Mandeville to emphasise that parents should see it as necessary to bear responsibility for their children’s education.

“We can see in the back-to-school exercise that some parents don’t have any interest… If you give them the book voucher some of them go and sell it for half the price,” he said.

Education Minister Ronald Thwaites urged parents to save towards their children’s future education, claiming that education is “a pearl of great price”. He commended members of parliament and parish councillors who take an interest in assisting with the educational development of constituents.

Phillips said that he would also like to see the legacy of Dean Peart’s deceased father Ernest Peart upheld through the naming of a long-planned new campus of the Mile Gully High School in his honour.

Peart, who like his father served North-West Manchester as member of parliament for five consecutive terms said that he feels that education is the “only way” that individuals can transform their lives.