Can someone please tell me what is happening with the new ALHCS? When will it be completed? When will our children benefit from its facilities? From what I see, a lot of planning and preparation went into the design and construction of the new campus but what good is all that if it is still incomplete and not being used? Our students and teachers have been working in poor conditions for a long time, even before Hurricane Irma, and it has only gotten worse. Back in 2015, there was an editorial entitled “Our Children Deserve Better”. Sadly, eight years later, we are still in the same position.
“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there from the time the Valley Secondary School opened its doors in 1953, crumbling infrastructure, old workshops with outdated equipment.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 non-functional spaces make it an uncomfortable place to learn. Then there are the two off-shoots 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 of 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, fund-raise 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 is can be rather difficult to be and stay motivated in an environment that is in desperate need of upgrade, but somehow most of them 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 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. 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 who have 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 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.”
