A.C.C. launches book drive
The Anglican Cathedral College emerged from an amalgamation of St Michael’s and St Hilda’s high schools back in 1982. And many leaders have passed through its doors including present and former prime ministers: Dean Barrow and Said Musa. There are other personalities such as Attorney Dickie Bradley who is a graduate of St. Michael’s and Merlene Leslie, General Manager for Anglican Schools, who graduated from St. Hilda’s. The high school, which is administered by the Anglican Diocese and the Government of Belize, recently decided to find additional ways to improve its performance. And after consultations with parents and students, the administration found out that there are many pupils without books and parents without the means to pay for them. The Director of A.C.C.’s Student Support Services, Hipolito Bautista, says they’ve started a book drive and hope the public will donate books as well as cash.
Hipolito Bautista, Director of Student Support Services, A.C.C.
“We began to look at many shortcomings of the school and one of them that caught our attention we had always suspected was a problem was the lack of textbooks amongst the students. So we determined to do a survey and the survey showed us some startling facts. The facts show that every single student of the students we have here lack at least two textbooks and maximum four textbooks. We found that third and fourth formers lack the most textbooks and those are the people who are two years from graduation. We found too that seventy percent of our parents are from low income, meaning that their weekly pay is one hundred and fifty dollars or a hundred and forty dollars. These parents pay about eighty-six dollars a month to have their children here and they also have to pay for the books and the uniforms and of course the food etcetera. We did an estimate of all the prices of the textbooks that we require here and the average price of the textbooks are forty dollars. Some of them have to have nine textbooks. Actually we provide for five hundred for textbooks for students who attend this school. So that is where the problem lies. We had a big meeting with the parents. We filled up the cathedral here and we told them of the situation. We gave them a month, a month and a half to remedy the situation. We have now come to the conclusion if we don’t get help from the outside, these students will continue to go through school without the necessary textbooks.”
Jose Sanchez
“How can the public help?”
Hipolito Bautista
“The public can help by donating forty dollars but first we want them to look around their house and see if they have any of the textbooks we use here at A.C.C.”
Bautista says that they will have their booklist emailed to anyone who wishes to have it. If you would want to contribute to A.C.C.’s book drive, you can call the office at 207-0675 or you can deposit to Atlantic Bank Savings Account number 210-929-520.
