$93M De Willem Secondary School commissioned in Region Three
Yesterday marks yet another commitment to provide quality education to the nation’s children, with the commissioning of the $93 million De Willem Secondary School in Region Three by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.
The school was completed within six to eight weeks.
The commissioning of the annexe, which houses 218 students, will officially close Saraswat Primary Top, as it will be able to accommodate the 127 students who are presently there.
The building was refurbished to function as an annexe to Uitvlugt Secondary.
Minister Manickchand underscored that the government will continue to prioritise the delivery of quality education, as it strongly believes that equalising the country is through education.
” So, this is a new and discreet secondary school with over 350 spaces that Region Three never had before today… This school will be getting taken to new heights, which really means that the children who will be at this school will come out as children who are excelling in this country and leading our country, ” Minister Manickchand elucidated.
The education minister commended the Regional Education Officer (REO), particularly for his intervention for the school to be completed within six to eight weeks.
She explained, “We want to have a very different country. We have to prepare these children to compete and thrive in the country that we want to see. And if we do not do that, we will be failing them and moving them behind. And we have no intention of doing that.”
Minister Manickchand emphasised that students from Saxcalli, Lower and Upper Bonasika, and other communities, who have been unable to access secondary education, will be able to receive one at Leonora Secondary soon. These students will be housed in the dormitories.
The training of teachers, distribution of cash grants, and textbooks, construction of schools, and the school feeding programme are part of the ministry’s transformation efforts to advance the education sector.
Headteacher of Uitvlugt Secondary School, Keith Sampson highlighted that the commissioning of the school has ignited renewed purpose, vision, new possibilities and the future.
The building, which was commissioned, was originally built and established in 1972 and named Zeeburg Secondary.
The building was slated to be refurbished due to its dire condition.
“However, the visionary leadership of the Ministry of Education saw the potential to make this building more than an annexe. With some more mountain-moving faith, and some timely allocation of funds, the vision of a new secondary school materialised,” Sampson noted.
Vice Chairman of Region Three, Omesh Satyanand also delivered remarks at the commissioning.
ACEO for Primary, Rabindra Singh, regional and other education were also at the ceremony.