Education

I wish to address this article to all our school children. I am writing you this not to shame you but to admonish you as my beloved children (1Cor 4:14).

Early Childhood Education Month climaxed in Anguilla on March 29 with a mass parade of children representing all the preschools on the island. The march commenced on the grounds of the Scouts and Guides Ruthwill Auditorium and wended its way to the open area of the Agricultural Department’s premises.

Mr. Leon Roydon, the (owner/manager) of Malliouhana Hotel in Meads Bay, has answered the call to supply three of the greatly needed items in the 'Empowerment Through Literacy Programme' which is being spearheaded by the Teachers' Resource Centre at the Department of Education.

Around this same time last year, I published an article in connection with a visit I paid to the Probation Department in Barbados on 28 November, 2000. The visit enabled me to obtain some useful information about the functioning of that department relating to juvenile offenders; probation of offenders; maintenance, regulators and rules; and prison welfare and after care service. I am motivated to publish some portions of that article again because hardly anything has been done to help our young people with their problems.

This year’s Primary School Science and Technology Fair will be held at the Teachers’ Resource Centre from March 26-28. More than two hundred Grade 6 students from the public primary schools are developing the fifty-five projects that will be on display.

The recent gang beating of Claudel Romney Jr., a young student at the Comprehensive School, who was admitted to the hospital as a consequence, and other acts of deviant behaviour, have forced teachers to take a strong stand against violence in the school.

The Superintendent Minister of the Anguilla Methodist Circuit, the Rev. Lindsay Richardson has issued the following press release in which he condemned the recent acts of violence at the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School.

Former Truancy Officer at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, Michael Fleming, says that some people are blaming the school for the spate of violence occurring there ever so often but they are mistaken.

The sixth form students from the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School who participated in the recent Annual Leeward Islands Debate have been congratulated for their performance.

Cable & Wireless in Anguilla is the first business unit in the region to offer the high-speed ADSL Internet Service to the Public Library and all schools on the island - and free of cost at that. (The new system will cost Cable and Wireless EC$20,000 a year).

The Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School is responsible for managing and spending a sizeable portion of its annual budget for the first time. According to the Principal, Darwin Hazell the current academic year began with the ALHCS functioning as a self-managing school, having been allocated over EC$900,000 by the Education Department to finance certain aspects of its expenditure.

As part of the New Year, the ECSE has embarked on a Marketing Education and Awareness Campaign for the entire OECS. The campaign is developed for a period of 12 months and includes print, television and oral presentations. Focus sessions are targeted at schools, business houses, financial institutions, community and service groups, government departments and others.

The Anguilla Government was presented with eighty computers and 30 inkjet printers which were distributed to the six public primary schools where Information Technology is part of the curriculum. The equipment was provided by The Mount Sinai School District of New York.

The West End Primary School project which still has a long way to go before its completion is very much alive.

This brings me to a personal instance in 1966, the first year that I was promoted to a headmaster at the West End Primary School. I had been there for less than an academic year, and the school received no passes. This was an extra-ordinary result for the school. I cannot recall that the parents of the students from Long Bay or West End openly casted judgement on my stewardship, but to be sure some of the members of the teaching fraternity had me belittled saying, “What kind of headteacher is he?” It must be realized that in those days promotion to headships were keenly contested.

Let me preface this article with a quote from the GOVERNMENT OF ANGUILLA BUDGET ADDRESS, FOR 2003 – “ Education with its allocation of $13.28 million will account for the largest share of the Social Development budget at 42.22%. This figure is 14.2% of the proposed total of Recurrent Expenditures. This is as it should be, Mr. Speaker. We have invested heavily in capital and human resource improvement in Education over the years.

Much emphasis is being placed on the teaching of foreign languages in the schools in Anguilla. One teacher, Colin Johnson, sees it as a very important matter to facilitate communication and travel, and in Anguilla’s case, as a plus for persons on the island intending to work in the tourism industry.

School Recognises Outstanding Students
A large crowd braved the inclement weather conditions across Anguilla on Tuesday evening to attend the Speech Night function of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School.