Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said that Government will endow the Sir Ellis Clarke Chair in Commonwealth Parliamentary and Constitutional Studies.
Persad-Bissessar made the statement as she delivered an address at Clarke's State funeral today.
"As Prime Minister, and as current Chair of the Commonwealth, deeply conscious on a personal basis of his vast contribution to Trinidad and Tobago and to the Commonwealth, particularly in matters dealing with constitutional reform, I am very pleased to announce to the national community that this morning, we held discussions with the Principal of the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies and the University has agreed that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago will endow the Sir Ellis Clarke Chair in Commonwealth Parliamentary and Constitutional Studies, she said.
"This Chair will be a major centre of learning available to and serving not only Trinidad and Tobago but the entire Commonwealth, as well as students of constitutional studies all over the world. It will be of immense value as Governments everywhere seek to reform and adapt their constitutions to meet national needs."
"The pioneering work of our own Sir Ellis will be brought to bear on future generations. This Endowment will honour not only his work in a major field of Government endeavour but his legacy will continue to benefit students, researchers and scholars from all over the world in a field of study that was literally his passion," Persad-Bissessar said.
