School building delay irks principal

Thwaites blames procurement process for slowdown in planned expansion of Anchovy High

Andrew Harris, Sunday Gleaner Writer

The principal of the St James-based Anchovy High School, Lambert Robinson, has expressed tremendous disappointment after the Government shelved plans to allocate money for the setting-up of a second campus for the school at the nearby Montpelier facility.

Just under $180 million allocated in the 2013-2014 Budget for the creation of a second campus for the school under the Education Transformation Programme has been slashed from the Government's planned spending for this year, leaving Robinson fuming.

"I have been telling the school and everyone that we will have our campus ready soon. Now what are we supposed to do, but seek other alternatives?" Robinson told The Sunday Gleaner last week after our news team gave him the first indication that the allocation had been pulled.

"As matter a fact, based on the promises made by the education minister, we should have moved in there from January," added Robinson.

Anchovy High now operates with two shifts, a system that Robinson and Education Minister Ronald Thwaites have agreed is inefficient.

The new campus is planned to allow Anchovy to move to a single-shift system by the start of the next school year.

But with the First Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure indicating that the money will not be allocated this year, Robinson argued that the problems facing the school and its 2,190 students will not be solved.

SCHOOL NOT INFORMED

An obviously frustrated Robinson questioned why the school was not informed if the Government decided not to keep its promise and allocate the money.

"Right now, I am left in a dark corner, because we weren't informed about this cut. To be frank with you, we are here still expecting that our campus would be ready in time."

He charged that this is a big setback for the school, which is pushing to improve the academic performance of its students.

"That second campus is very important to our efficiency as a school. The co-curricular activities that we currently cannot host will still be not be held. The sports facilities at the new campus would have solved some problems. The school just doesn't have enough space to hold all these students," declared Robinson.

"The students don't even get enough time to interact with each other, and that interaction is very important in growth. As one shift ends, we have to be clearing out to welcome the next shift,"

Yesterday, Thwaites reiterated his commitment to the creation of the new campus for Anchovy High, and said the adjustment in the Supplementary Estimates is a budgeting function.

"I had hoped that the campus would be ready for Easter, but that will not happen because of the cumbersome procurement process that we have to go through," Thwaites told The Sunday Gleaner.

"We have left about $10 million in the Budget for the preliminaries and have gone to contract, but with us unable to spend the money in this fiscal year, it had to be taken out of the Budget and reflected in the expenditure for the next fiscal year," added Thwaites, as he declared that the new campus should be ready by September.

"I can understand the frustration of the principal and I could have built a brand new school in the time but for the procurement process. However, there should be no further delays and the money is not in doubt," said Thwaites.