New J$20 million basic school for inner city community

JSIF News, June 24, 2009: 

Relative calm has ruled the Burke Road Basic School located at 3 Burke Road, Kingston since the school’s establishment in 1952. Nowhere was the sound of major construction heard. The hum of school life continued within the confines of the dining room of the Church in Jesus Christ Apostolic despite the inappropriate desks, chairs and teaching equipment being used by the young charges attending the school.

The J$20.3 Burke Road Basic School now under construction in the Burke Road community off Maxfield Avenue. 

But all this has already started to change as a beehive of activity is taking place for the construction of a new three classroom school comprising bathroom facilities for teachers and students, kitchen with storage area, administrative area, drinking fountain, sick bay, play area, water storage tanks as well as all the necessary sewer & drainage system and perimeter fencing.

Dr. Saphire Longmore, JSIF Board Member hands over the signed sponsor agreement to Ms. Kathleen Anderson, Board Chairman and Bishop Eukent Higgins of the Church in Jesus Christ Apostolic. Looking on is the Most Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller, Opposition Leader and Member of Parliament for South West St. Andrew.  

On June 18, 2009, at an official sponsor signing ceremony, the Burke Road Basic School Board and Church in partnership with the Jamaica Social Investment Find inked the documents to formalize the collaboration. Under the agreement, the three classroom block will be constructed and fully equipped at a cost of J$20.3 million of which the JSIF is contributing $18.4 million from a grant received under the Basic Needs Trust Fund Programme; while the Burke Road Basic School Board and Church will provide $1.8 million in sweat equity.

Part of the sweat equity involves the donation of the land by the church to construct the new school. In addition, the sponsor body will also provide landscaping after the project is completed, electricity and water for the undertaking of the construction works, discounted labour among other things.

Opposition Leader and Member of Parliament for South West St. Andrew, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller in bringing greetings pointed out that the constituency was the richest, given that it housed the largest industrial belt in Jamaica. She noted however that the residents are poor, but very hard working and it is only through education that the constituency can be lifted from the abyss of poverty. She further encouraged parents to “send children to school, no matter what! If you start them right, you will make them bright”.

Dr. Saphire Longmore, JSIF Board Member pointed to Government’s commitment to developing the early childhood sector and the Ministry of Education’s slogan “Every child can learn, every child must learn”. Dr. Longmore stated that the Fund is fully committed to this process, given that part of the organisation’s “strategy was and continues to be using education as a platform from which to achieve its over-arching goal of poverty alleviation”.

Meanwhile Guest Speaker Valoris Medley endorsed Mrs. Simpson- Miller’s statement, noting that many persons who have achieved have done so as a result of their parents selling coal or selling in the markets. Hence it is important to equip children with the necessary tools regardless of life’s many challenges.

The school is being constructed by Ricam Construction Company Limited and is slated for completion in 4 months.