Education Minister Wants Mandatory Inclusion of Schools in Housing Developments

Education Minister, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, wants a policy instituted that will make the provision of schools, and health and security facilities, requirements for all housing developments undertaken.

To this end, the Minister says he will be lobbying Parliament’s and relevant state agencies’ support to develop such a policy.

“Housing developments are always welcomed. However I am asking for the support of every Member of Parliament, the Parish Councils, and the Government authorities who approve plans for these new housing schemes, that they should not just approve the plans for the roads, light, water, and sewage. If you are bringing people into an area, you must provide for school, health, and security,” he asserts.

The Minister was speaking at Friday’s (June 20) ground breaking ceremony, in Montpellier, St. James, for the transformation of the former Haitian Refugee Camp facility into a second Campus for the Anchovy High School, in the parish.

Meanwhile, Rev. Thwaites advised that construction of the new campus will enable the school’s administration to end the existing shift system for the 2.200 students currently enrolled

“Anchovy High was built for 1,000 students, and is now bursting at the seams; and in trying to meet the need for more space, the shift system was introduced… with the best intentions. But students, especially those on the afternoon shift, receive (only) four hours of instruction and not the five and half hours that their counterparts at a single shift institution receive. It means also that the possibility of extra-curricular activities for shift system students (is significantly) reduced,” Minister Thwaites said.

He added Anchovy High’s project will enable the school to join the growing number of secondary institutions, where the dual shift system exists, that have or are taking steps to remove this feature.

Anchovy High School is set to receive an additional 200 students from the 2014 Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) cohort, when the 2014/15 academic year commences in September.

Once the second campus comes on stream, students from Grades Seven and Eight will be accommodated there, in the first instance. Plans are also being finalized to have Grade Nine students relocated to that block, thereafter.