Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams says two garbage skips will be delivered to the Clan Carthy Primary School in the coming week as part of a commitment to the institution to prevent garbage trucks from entering the schoolgrounds.

Williams’s commitment follows the tragic death of seven-year-old Benjamin Bair, a student of the institution who was killed after a garbage truck overturned and crushed him to death four years ago.

“Last year, I visited Clan Carthy, you remember MP at the 53rd Founders Day celebration, what a celebration that was, and at time, I gave three commitments to Clan Carthy. Commitment one was to get the garbage skips completed so that there would never be a repeat of the unfortunate situation involving Benjamin and today, I can say construction is complete. Principal two skips will be delivered next week and then the commissioning will happen,” she said.

Williams was speaking at the official ceremony for the handover of a newly renovated computer room to Clan Carthy Primary School on Tuesday, November 28, courtesy of the ‘Dom Rep School Adoption Program’.

“I know it took a long time to get done and I could write a book about it but let’s just say it’s complete and so once it’s commissioned a garbage truck will not be coming onto the school compound. It will have its own entry and exit onto the street,”

FAYVAL WILLIAMS

The education minister also announced that work will commence this weekend on the roofing of Block B, which houses grades five and six students.

“The significance of that is when rain falls it’s just very noisy on the zinc, no teaching can happen and I committed to getting a ceiling put in so that It could be quieter when there is rain and facilitate teaching and learning,” she added.

Williams outlined the scope of the work to be executed over four weekends.

Another commitment to the institution was increasing broadband access to facilitate the integration of technology into the teaching and learning commitment.

“The third commitment had to do with the Internet, the broadband capability of the school, you may not know but I am pleased to tell you that the government has a very ambitious broadband internet connectivity programme in which all of our schools, wherever they are in Jamaica will be connected with broadband capability. Today, I am pleased that Clan Carthy has such as facility, I know that they are still a little bit more work to be done so that it is available, not just in the location where it is connected but in other locations,”

MINISTER OF EDUCATION FAYVAL WILLIAMS

The computer lab at the institution was renovated under the ‘Dom Rep School Adoption Program’, which saw the location being equipped with 15 desktop computers, a printer, chairs, and the installation of an air-conditioning unit.

Williams further noted that more than 550 high schools and primary schools across the island have been connected with broadband capability.