New Tranquil school coming, says Hazel

A NEW Tranquillity Government Primary School building is to be built soon, Minister of Education Senator Hazel Manning announced yesterday.

Mrs Manning made the surprise announcement during a visit to the school on Stanmore Avenue, Port-of-Spain. The Minister visited the St Ursula’s Primary School on St Vincent Street and Tranquillity Primary School to wish the students writing today’s Secondary Assessment Examination (SEA) all the best before heading to a meeting between a Cabinet-appointed team and the World Bank at the Financial Complex. About 20,600 will be writing the SEA today and according to the Minister, all the candidates will be placed in secondary schools come September.

A grand welcome was in store for the Minister at Tranquillity. Despite the hot weather, the staff, students and School Supevisors of the Ministry were present to welcome the Minister to their school. Mrs Manning told teachers and students that the idea of a new school for Tranquillity Primary School was on the drawing board, but hopes to turn the sod shortly to start construction of the new building. The Minister said Tranquillity was one of the schools to benefit from a $2 billion construction loan.. She admitted that the school building was quite old, and although the roof was repaired by the Ministry during the recent holiday period, the ceiling has started to collapse.

One parent who stayed around to witness the brief ceremony told Newsday that she was excited that Tranquillity will be re-built. She said she attended the school 20 years ago and was proud that her son was following in her footsteps. Mrs Manning said a research carried out by her Ministry discovered that about 50 percent of the 488 primary schools were over 50 years old. She said there is a programme in place to either replace or refurbish delapidated school buildings throughout Trinidad and Tobago.

The Minister pointed out that it would take at least nine months to construct a new building for Tranquillity. She promised that arrangements will have to be made for the staff and teachers for the period when the new building will be under construction. Mrs Manning said there were 18 schools to be constructed under the $2 billion construction loan.