Gov’t to acquire lands at old Ursuline Convent, Chelston Park to build two educational institutions

By Sheria Brathwaite

Government will be partnering with an international non-profit organisation to build two new public secondary schools.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced on Thursday that her administration will be acquiring lands at Chelston Park where RBC Royal Bank (Barbados) is based in Collymore Rock, St Michael and the nearby Ursuline Convent School to establish the two learning institutions.

She was speaking at the launch of education transformation proposals at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

Although she did not disclose many details about the project, she said: “The partnerships will come with entities outside of Barbados as we have already established with XQ [Institute], who have agreed to build the two new secondary schools for us, once the government provides the land as we have already started to do. Purchasing the site of the old Ursuline Convent and purchasing the site at Chelston in order to build a school that is focused also on preparing students in the specialist areas of the blue/green economy, should that be the wish of Barbadians,” Mottley said.

She said the partnership will also come with a twinning of the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College with an Ivy League school “to be able to ensure that the capacity constraints of Erdiston and Barbados, with a declining population, do not undermine our ability to [reform education] . . . .”

XQ Institute is a non-profit organisation based in the United States that develops programmes to improve high school education. It was launched in 2015 and it aims to improve the learning experience of children. 

Present and past ministers of education and union representatives at the launch of the education reform proposals.

With the aid of that entity, the two schools will be erected as part of the government’s education reform process.

Mottley said this was important in the development of Barbados as it was a significant step in the decolonisation process and getting rid of a class system that excluded the enfranchisement of all Barbadians.

She encouraged Barbadians to come out to the various public forums to discuss and share their thoughts on the proposals, acknowledging that some aspects of the plan were controversial.

“Eighty per cent of what you heard is not controversial. There may be a few that will be controversial and that we need to discuss as a mature nation and a mature people,” the prime minister said.

She added that the reformation process would also seek to address a number of inequities in the education sector.

Mottley identified one of these as “the disparities between the pay of principals at the primary and secondary [level]”.

Noting that consultation on the proposed reforms was done with the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and an offer was made for them to participate in the management of the new school system, she said the transition was not about politics but about the advancement of the future of Barbados. 

“I thank the ministry also for consulting with the opposition . . . . I am ensuring that the offer to participate equally be made to the opposition in the management because a time will come when this country will have different governments and different people,” she said.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb