Union Island Secondary School officially opens

The new Union Island Secondary School (UISS), located at Campbell, Union Island, was officially opened on Tuesday, August 31, about one year after students began taking classes there.{{more}}

Architect Moulton Mayers told SEARCHLIGHT that the $13 million facility is constructed on 3.5 acres of land and is designed to accommodate 420 students.

The facility includes a school block, a security hut, a male and female washroom block, teachers’ dormitory, and a mechanical/electrical block.

The school, which replaced the one in Ashton, is also designed to accommodate physically challenged persons.

It includes ramps, locks and washrooms designed to provide easy access to wheelchair-bound persons.

Mayers said the 21,000 square-foot school block includes an auditorium; 12 classrooms; a principal’s office fitted with secretarial pool, kitchen and storage; two science laboratories; a computer laboratory; a counseling room; a library; a staff room, a steel band room and two levels of single loaded corridors.

He said the “L” shaped design was configured to take advantage of the view of the football field, the hard court to be constructed, and the southernmost Grenadine islands.

The teachers’ dorm has 500 square-feet of floor space, with two two-bedroom apartments on the ground level. The upper level has one studio apartment, and one two-bedroom apartment for the principal.

“Foremost in our minds as designers was to create an excellent teaching and learning environment which would lead to a significant enhancement and improvement in the quality of education received and education delivered,” Mayers told SEARCHLIGHT.

He further said that research into education shows that an excellently designed school coupled with excellent tutorial skills motivates students to perform better academically.

Mayers told SEARCHLIGHT he believes the school’s design contributed to the 79.5 per cent pass rate the UISS registered in this year’s Certificate of Secondary Education (CSEC) examination, one of the school’s best results ever.

“It has a nice view. It is kind of big. I enjoy the furniture. The breeze that blows through the school keeps us cool,” fourth form student Elvin Joseph, 16, told SEARCHLIGHT.

He said the old secondary school was very hot. “It was very disturbing with children passing through your class to go to other classes because blackboards were used as partitions,’ said Joseph, who aspires to become a pilot and will write nine CSEC subjects next year.

Meshunda Laborde, 15, also said that the school was “better than the first one”, with “better facilities”.

“The toilets are better. We have a lab and the staffroom is better than the one we had at first. The kitchen is also better,” said the fourth form student who hopes to write nine or ten subjects next year, although she is not yet decided on a career path.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Nicole Bonadie Baker said at the opening ceremony that the official opening of the school was delayed until the school was fitted with brand new furniture.

Furniture was sourced from other secondary schools in St. Vincent while the Ministry went through the furniture procurement process.

“The Ministry could not afford to leave the students in the old and less than adequate facility at Ashton, and chose instead to open the facility’s doors one year prior to the conclusion of furniture contracts, under the already approved new ICT (Information and Communication Technology) project,” the education official said.

She further encouraged principal of the UISS, Godwin James, and his staff to manage the school effectively and told students that they have a facility that other Vincentian students would envy.

“When you leave these portals, if you have not maximized all that is currently available to you, and if you have not applied yourself to achieve your highest possible potential, then you have no one else to blame but yourself,” Bonadie-Baker said.

Construction of the school was financed by the European Union and the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Also addressing Tuesday’s opening ceremony were Minister of Education, Girlyn Miguel; Chief Education Officer, Lou-Anne Gilchrist; Charge d’affaires of the European Union Delegation to Barbados and The Eastern Caribbean, Robert Baldwin; Parliamentary Representative for the Southern Grenadines, Terrance Ollivierre; Director of Grenadines Affairs, Edwin Snagg; and Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who delivered the keynote address. (KXC)