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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 82 - Monday June 12, 2006 |
"Northern Education Complex to Offer Wide Range of Opportunities
 Sean Douglas - Government Press Secretary
Prime Minister, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit has pledged that the new Northern Education Complex, now nearing completion in Londonderry, will offer opportunities not only in academic programmes but will also offer training in vocational and technical subjects as well.
The Prime Minister made the pledge as he led a delegation of members of Cabinet to the site of the Northern Education Complex on Tuesday. The contractors, Stewco Construction Company Limited of Dominica, say the facility will be finished in time for the 2006/2007 academic year.
The Prime Minister said: �The whole idea is to continue providing additional technical and vocational programmes in that part of Dominica and I am hoping that agriculture itself can be featured highly �. the whole issue of banana tissue culture is something the school should seek to pioneer in Dominica and provide the banana farmers in the area with that very important scientific innovation.
�This school will lend itself to tremendous opportunities for technical and vocational programmes to complement and parallel the academic programmes that will be offered at the school.�
The Prime Minister also commended the contractors for the quality of work done on the facility thus far: �It is an amazing facility. I am exceptionally pleased with the level of work that has been done here at the Northern Education Complex. It shows, if given an opportunity, how local contractors, can certainly deliver to the Dominican people.�
Minister for Education, Youth Affairs, Sports and Human Resource Development, Hon. Vince Henderson, also expressed satisfaction with the manner in which work is progressing and was full of praise for the local contractors.
Hon. Henderson also emphasised that by completing the facility, the Ministry of Education will have achieved a major objective: �At this stage we are very happy that we will see the facility open its doors for the students within the catchment area, that is to say, students from Calibishie all the way to the Carib Territory who will be provided with a space here at the Northern Education Complex.
�It will also ensure that our programme of Universal Secondary Education (USE) can be easily accommodated within this catchment area although it exists now, but it means we would have had to make some additional investments in new classrooms as we did last year to accommodate all the students�..�
Upon completion the facility will be the most state-of-the-art institution of learning in Dominica. Most of the funding for the facility came from the European Union. The physically imposing multi-million dollar Complex will cater for the over 800 students from the Marigot Secondary School and the St. Andrews High School. The facility will boast an auditorium, state-of-the-art science labs, spacious classrooms, an administrative block, facilities for arts and craft, music, garment making, food and nutrition as well as facilities for sports and recreation.
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