A most successful school in Anguilla, in terms of academic and professional achievement for its students – serving originally from 1953 as The Valley Secondary School and, in more recent years, from the mid-1980s, as the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School – is now to be redeveloped along the lines of a carefully-conceived Master Plan.
The redevelopment of the school is being occasioned by a serious deterioration of both the older and newer cluster of buildings located in the centre of Anguilla, and accommodating students from throughout the island. The entire overcrowded complex, with old infrastructure, poor architectural layout, inadequate facilities, and limited expansion capacity, among other negative impacts, is viewed as no longer fit to properly and safely accommodate its growing student population.
The Anguilla Government is presently engaged in raising funds for the urgent and costly project. The need is so pronounced that financial assistance is even being solicited from former students – now accomplished and professional persons abroad, as well as in Anguilla. This, as indicated above, is in addition to the Government’s and the Ministry of Education’s efforts to attract funding from various other sources.
A Press Statement, issued on March 17, 2016, by Mrs. Chanelle Petty Barrett, Permanent Secretary, Education, on behalf of the Honourable Minister, Mr. Evans McNiel Rogers, outlined the case for the redevelopment of the school as follows:
“The Ministry of Education announces the commencement of the process to prepare a Master Plan for the redevelopment of the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School.
Education delivery at the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School is being compromised by:
• Old and deteriorating physical infrastructure;
• 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 make expansion impracticable;
• Current building layout which impedes proper supervision of students;
• Inadequate facilities and equipment necessary for technical and vocational education programmes;
• The operational logistics of managing one school from four sites.
While Government has sought to address these issues, over the years, it is evident that rather than continuously seeking to upgrade and revamp existing infrastructure, it would make more economic sense to redevelop the entire school. The Government of Anguilla is therefore seeking the services of a Consulting Team to develop a Master Plan that will provide the framework for the redevelopment of the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School, taking into consideration existing usage, current trends and future national development needs.
Government is encouraging residents of Anguilla who are interested in providing these services to collaborate in the submission of expressions of interest and proposals for this project. Interested persons are encouraged to visit the Government website, listen to the media or contact the Procurement Office in the Ministry of Finance for further details.
Government looks forward to the involvement of the Anguillian people in ensuring that modern, fit for purpose facilities are provided for the delivery of secondary education.”
As a follow-up to that Press Statement, a Procurement Notice was published on the website of the Government of Anguilla. The notice is published adjacent to this article.
