New School Extension for Grace Primary
Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber was today inaugurating the extension to Grace Primary School within the Collet Division. The new facility will host upper division students and will improve significantly the environment in which they learn. News Five’s Duane Moody attended the launch and files this report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Grace Primary School has a new home; at least for its standard five and six students that is, following the inauguration of a building on Faber’s Road Extension. For years now, the original location of the educational institution on Amara Avenue has been congested with the volume of students and there was need for expansion. It has been in the pipeline for over two decades, and finally today, the building outfitted with three classrooms, a teacher’s lounge, a principal’s office and kitchen was officially inaugurated.
Brenda Kidd
Brenda Kidd, Manager, Grace Primary School
“This piece of land was acquired with the vision of establishing a state of the art school campus. In 1995, I remember the principal at that time, Miss Gloria Edwards and her PTA displaying the million-dollar model that we oohed and aahed over. Unfortunately that model was lost somewhere along the way, but we are grateful for what we are seeing today.”
Fast track to August 2016, ground was broken for the construction of the facilities. The project, valued at approximately seven hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, was funded through a loan by the Government from the Caribbean Development Bank. The Social Investment Fund oversaw the construction of the building, including a lunch shed with picnic tables. According to Executive Director at SIF, William Lamb Junior, the institution works with the community and government to alleviate poverty.
William Lamb Jr.
William Lamb Jr., Executive Director, SIF
“Some of the sectors and areas we work in are health, water and sanitation, infrastructure development and human development skills and training. We have been doing this for over twenty-one years now and we are proud to be a part of this long legacy. It is going to be at least six hundred subprojects from north to south that the Social Investment Fund has been proud to be a part of in impacting the lives of Belizeans around the country.”
The Parent Teachers Association of the school was instrumental in the new development; they contributed approximately fifty thousand dollars as counterpart funding for landfill, the kitchen facility and monitoring support.
Phillip Singh
Phillip Singh, President, PTA
“Patience, persistence and perseverance make an unbeatable combination for success. Indeed, today is a symbol of Grace Primary’s persistence, perseverance in seeing a dream become successful. It is a testament that when teachers, managers, parents and government work together, combine our efforts, we can accomplish great things.”
It is a proud moment for the Minister of Education, Patrick Faber, who welcomes the new educational facility in his electoral division.
Patrick Faber
Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
“While it has taken a while we are glad that it is finally here and that Grace Primary is finding its new home here in the Collet Division and we welcome them warmly. This building means a lot to me in many, many ways. But it also will serve as a hurricane shelter and I am hoping that the school and the community here can work together, as it has already been doing, so that the facilities here can be a service to the community.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
