As usual around this time of year, our paper features the accomplishments of many of our students who sat the May/ June 2015 CXC examinations – the culmination of their years of secondary schooling. We congratulate all students who attained some measure of success in their examinations; and we also commend their teachers and parents for a job well done in ensuring their preparation for these examinations which are critical to determining their future. What is even more heartening is that year after year we see that there are strides being made in the education system. However, have we ever stopped and paid attention to the odds that our students and their teachers have to overcome to ensure success?
If one takes a walk around Campus A of the ALHCS, one will be greeted with dilapidated buildings – many of which have been there from the time The Valley Secondary School opened its doors in 1953 – crumbling infrastructure, old workshops with outdated equipment. Campus B, while newer, is bursting at the seams – and the cramped conditions and nonfunctional spaces make it an uncomfortable place to learn. Then there are the two offshoots, which we refer to as WISE and Campus C, which seem to be doing a good job with the children but where the accommodation is far from ideal. To be fair, we must give the leadership of the ALHCS kudos for their efforts, over the years, to beautify the surroundings, introduce more technology and make the school a welcoming and comfortable place in which learning can take place. In addition to educators, they also appear to be health professionals, because they have done well in putting plasters on every sore.
There are many sore spots in the infrastructure at ALHCS, and I often wonder how do our children learn in these circumstances? However, I have come to realise it is a result of the sacrifices made by many teachers. They make do with what they have, they have free extra classes in their spare time, they become creative in their lesson delivery, they fundraise to get what they need, and even spend their own money so that the children can learn or to make the environment a little more pleasant. They do not use the paucity of proper facilities as an excuse for not doing their best. Our entire country owes them a debt of gratitude for their perseverance in overcoming the odds. I would imagine that it can be rather difficult to be, and stay, motivated in an environment that is in desperate need of upgrading, but somehow most of our teachers manage to do just that.
If so many of our students can attain success in these conditions, imagine what they and others can accomplish if they could attend a twenty first century secondary school. One of our top priority development goals should be the building of a modern secondary school or schools. Our children deserve to go to school in spacious classrooms with proper electrical infrastructure and technological equipment for teaching and learning. They deserve to go a school which meets their needs and has up to date, industry-approved, facilities for science and technical education. They deserve to go to a school where, rather than following the normal curriculum, they can follow one that is in keeping with their challenges and aspirations and still feel a part of the school community rather than a reject in an “outpost” of the school. Our children deserve a school that is well resourced and conducive to learning. The ALHCS falls short in many of these areas.
Both the ALHCS and VSS have served the people of Anguilla well. There are many persons who have passed through those gates and excelled in their chosen fields nationally and internationally. However, the facilities have served their time and outlived their usefulness. The outcomes which Anguilla needs from its education system cannot realistically be accomplished with the existing facilities at ALHCS. If we really want to see more of our students succeed, then we have to provide them with what they and their teachers need to do so. We always declare what seems to be a simple truism: our children are the future. What will that future be like, if we do not care for them in the present? Our children deserve better. I call on our Government to do right by them.
