The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank has fulfilled a commitment to provide EC$100,000 to The Valley Primary School as part of the institution’s mentorship programme which was started in 2007. The grant is to be used for the development of the school’s Information Technology education system.
A symbolic cheque in that amount was presented to Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ellis Lorenzo Webster, on Thursday, March 25, at the Teachers’ Resource Centre. Dr. Webster has been an ECCB Council Member since assuming elected office in the Government of Anguilla eight months ago.
The presentation was made on behalf of the ECCB by Mrs. Shirmaine Lynch-Harrigan, Country Manager in Anguilla.
Governor of the ECCB, Mr. Timothy Antoine, speaking from the banks’ headquarters in St. Kitts by Zoom Connection, recalled having visited Anguilla in September, 2017, when he was taken aback by the severe destruction wrought by Hurricane Irma on the island, including The Valley Primary School. He said that the promised assistance he had earlier made to the school might have been long in coming, for seven years, but when he saw the damage there, he knew then in his heart that something had to be done by the ECCB. He explained that the decision for the mentorship of the school was in addition to the one million EC dollars provided for Anguilla by the ECCB following the hurricane.
“We want to make sure that the children of The Valley Primary School and, by extension the children of Anguilla, are confident participants in the digital economy,” he stressed. “And I want to be very clear here– not just as consumers, but as producers in the digital economy.”
In expressing thanks to the ECCB, Premier Webster said it was a good idea that the Central Bank had chosen education as the sector to support in Anguilla in terms of Information Technology. “I think that sends the right message by taking a primary school, where young minds come to learn, and to donate to a [computer] lab, and committing to giving access to the whole world – that is what Information Technology does.”
Minister of Education and Social Development, Ms. Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers, said in part: “It is interesting that the Governor spoke about the austerity and the hard period that Anguilla has been through during the past ten years. This has been from Hurricane Irma, the financial crisis and now to COVID-19. But what it signals is that there is no recovery without education. As we move to the fourth industrial revolution and the information age, it is critical that our children have the tools that would enable them to actively participate in this highly technical world.”
Principal of The Valley Primary School, Mr. Michael Skellekie, joined in thanking the ECCB for its kind assistance for the technical development of the school. He stated that the generous contribution of the bank “will no doubt bring about a modern and spacious learning environment for its users. Our students and our teachers will enjoy this new learning space.”
Meanwhile, Anguilla’s former Premier and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks, was also at the event. He told The Anguillian newspaper that he was fully acquainted with the ECCB’s mentorship programme for the school. He was grateful to the bank for fulfilling its commitment to his then Government and to the present Government of Anguilla.
