62 New Students Enrolled at Itz’at STEAM Academy

The Itz’at STEAM Academy was scheduled to open its doors to secondary school students back in September.  While there was a delay in its opening, the science and technology institution is boasting an enrolment of sixty-two students in its first year.  When we caught up with the Minister of Education on the compound earlier today, we asked him for a progress report on the new academy.

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“I’m very, very excited about the Itz’at [STEAM] Academy.  It’s gotten off to a great start, I think now we have about sixty-two students we started with, the enrolment.  We’re finishing up and I just got a report that the contractor will be out next week, this is his final week.  What we have now, what we’ve had a delay with is getting some of the equipment that we need.  So that’s coming in and I think we’ll have everything in place by March of next year, all the equipment, all the lab equipment, all the technological equipment that we’ve ordered.  So, you know, I’m very, very excited about this and I can tell you that we started out with sixty-two students but we’ve already gotten lots of, lots of interest from students across the country so it will be a very, very difficult job of ensuring that we select in a very transparent, equitable way the students who will be able to come in next year.  It’s likely to be well over a hundred new students coming in next year.  So that’s where we are with the Itz’at Academy.”

Reporter

“What’s the capacity of the school at this moment?”

Francis Fonseca

“Yeah, I think the school capacity is around two hundred, or so, but as I said, we wanted to start off, and of course the buildings weren’t finished so we had to start off in a phased way so we couldn’t take in more than the amount we had, the sixty-plus students.  But now that the buildings are finished, we’ll be able to expand, you know, I think, to full capacity next year.”