MARGARET BRISSETT-BOLT, principal of Holy Trinity High School, Kingston, could not contain her excitement on Monday as the institution received $200,000 worth of hardware items, to assist the grade-11 vocational students with preparation for their 2013 examinations, from the Kiwanis Club of Eastern St Andrew.

"Ohhhh man! This is so important, Holy Trinity is a school that is really doing well and it has really been trying to improve, but sometimes we lack the resources for the students to work with; this gift has just answered a prayer," Brissett-Bolt told The Gleaner.

Elated students

"There are some students who will be going on and doing CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations), but there are others who will not be sitting the CSEC. These students really needed help because they are very talented, but needed the raw materials to work with," she added.

Brissett-Bolt also noted that the students were very elated as they are now presented with the opportunity to do more practical work in addition to the theory that was already being provided.

"The gift is really going to help them with welding and woodwork; they will now have the raw material to sharpen their skills in these fields," she said.

"The students are very happy, because they know that they don't have to do theory alone. They are very happy for this as now there is something else to work towards, coming to school and being occupied and engaged," Brissett-Bolt added.

New partnership

Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites said this was the beginning of a new partnership between generous-minded people in service clubs and businesses to uplift the standard of education at inner-city schools such as Holy Trinity.

President of Kiwanis Club of Eastern St Andrew Saundra Bailey told The Gleaner that the donation was as a result of the partnership that was formed between Kiwanis and the Key Club at the school more than 10 years ago.

"We are currently working on refurbishing the science lab. I toured the science lab and realised it really needs to be modernised. That is going to be one of our major projects this year that we plan to do over the summer because they are now using it," she said.

alessandro.boyd@gleanerjm.com