In a very comprehensive and appealing Press Statement, and a detailed Procurement Notice, through the Ministry of Education, and the Procurement Unit in the Ministry of Finance, respectively, the Anguilla Government has set out a compelling case for the redevelopment of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School.
The Press Statement pointed to a number of negatives that seriously compromise the functioning of the school. These include: the old and deteriorating physical structure; limited space and overcrowded classrooms; inadequate laboratory facilities; antiquated and inadequate electrical infrastructure which hampers further development particularly the development of ICT; current building design which makes expansion impracticable; current building layout which impedes proper supervision of students; inadequate facilities and equipment necessary for technical and vocational education programmes; [and] the operational logistics of managing one school from four locations.
Those are indeed well expressed concerns that call for immediate redress to stave off consequential problems – and even failures – which are bound to occur later on in this area of our secondary school education system, if the situation is not properly and urgently addressed. It is this school system, as it existed in its formative, yet successful years, as The Valley Secondary School, and then more recently as The Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, that has made Anguilla a most proud island through the academic, technical and other achievements of hundreds of students in the march of time.
The doctors, lawyers, engineers, economic and financial personnel, past and present permanent secretaries, politicians, and a host of other professional and well-qualified people, at home and abroad, have all passed with flying colours through the school under its two names. It is the entrance qualifications earned there that have enabled them to gain college and university admission and registration, thus ensuring the valuable degrees, diplomas and certificates they hold today and the high positions of responsibility, trust and influence they occupy and have occupied. It is on their shoulders that we have built, and continue to build and administer, our island nation. For them, and for many others, the school, to which we must now pay homage, is not just an alma mater but one which is to be revered in every sense of the word.
What must now be our response to the school’s planned redevelopment through a carefully-crafted Master Plan? At the least, all of us in Anguilla must lend our support even by saying it is a most welcome initiative aimed at creating further opportunities to prepare our young men and young women for the future. Our current Minister of Education, who is a proud health professional, and a former student of the school, has understandably gone a step further. He has suggested that past students, who are now at the zenith of their lucrative professions, should think about contributing financially to the redevelopment of the school – whether as a separate academic institution, on one hand, a separate technical institute on the other hand, or a combination of both. That suggestion, by itself, reflects the urgent need and importance of the planned project and what it means to the development of education and the future of Anguilla. In a word, the suggestion hinges on patriotism and this is one of the greatest demonstrations of loyalty and respect anyone can show to his or her country.
Further, Anguilla is an emerging island nation in need of foreign capital assistance for a string of desirable projects necessary for its social and economic development. There are many funding agencies and philanthropic foundations that can lend a helping hand to small developing states like Anguilla. We need to tap these resources in our well-laid out case. Plus, there are developers and other investors in Anguilla who have benefitted, and continue to benefit extremely, from the Government’s open-arm and liberal policies of duty-free concessions, no permanent direct taxation and limited indirect taxation. Surely, some of these developers and investors can, even without being requested, contribute to a school that has partly made Anguilla the great place in which they are doing business and enjoying its delights.
Please, everybody, help us, a grateful and resilient people in Anguilla, to build the new school we so badly need and are so very passionate about.
