As part of Dominica’s independence celebrations this year, the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Planning, Vocational Training and National Excellence in collaboration with the Division of Culture initiated a list of activities for schools across the island.
Part of the activities included a sein pulling fishing expedition event which was hosted by the Savanne Paille Primary School on Thursday October 22, 2020.
Principal of the Savanne Paille Primary School Mrs. Martha Austrie says the aim of the activity was to expose the students to Dominica’s traditional fishing practices.
“One of things that we wanted to do I expose our students to traditional ways of doing things many, many, many years ago to how our fathers and grandfathers use to do it. Because we notice that many of our students at this age, they are not familiar with this,” Mrs. Austrie stated.
Mrs. Austrie says the students were also taught the process of fish cleaning.
“We really hope that our objective was met. Some of our students are learning how to clean the fish. And so we are very happy that we got to this activity d we hope it remains etched in their memory for a very long time,” Mrs. Austrie noted.
Teacher at the Savanne Paille Primary School Miss Indira Pierre-Louis expressed her thanks to the Ministry of Education for approving the activity.
“We want to say thanks to the Ministry of Education who gave us the permission to be able to conduct this activity. Although it could have been better, due to the waves the fishermen advised that we could not have the children to close to get the full experience of pulling the net. But I am hoping that one day we can take them out again and have them get that full experience. All in all it was a successful day, the children had fun and they learnt how to clean the fish and all of that,” Ms. Pierre-Louis explained.
Meantime, students of the Savanne Paille Primary School described their fishing experience.
“We went fishing and we were taught how to cast a net. It was very interesting because we saw how they casted and pulled in the net, although we didn’t get any fish. I did enjoy the activities today and I might become a fisherman because this is just so fun,” said Delvin Jno. Baptiste, a Grade Five student of the Savanne Paille Primary School.
Robertson Douglas who is a fisherman of the Savanne Paille community assisted with the training. He says he is pleased to have been able to interact with the students.
“The teachers contacted me to assist the children to do some fishing and show them how cast the net among other things. While there has a lot of fight, due to the waters being a little rough, we couldn’t do all we wanted to do but we hope the next time is better. I feel happy being able to show them what to do,” Douglas stated.