Principal Wafe: “A day of hope for the future’

Patricia Wafe, acting Principal of the Scarborough Roman Catholic School on Wednesday’ described the commissioning of the school at Smithfield Road in Scarborough and “a day of hope for the future.’

Addressing guests at the event, Wafe said the commissioning marks the beginning of a new chapter, a new era, another milestone in the development of the Scarborough Roman Catholic School.

“Today is a day of hope for the future, interwoven with good memories of the old days. The building provides a much-improved learning environment for both the teachers and students.

“Our teachers and students are all excited to move in, we are all well aware of the interaction between physical spaces and the learning environment.

“It must also be noted that modern facilities improve not only the school’s physical environment but also the students’ culture. We are also aware that the building alone cannot infuse the vision and passion that guides the school development, but it is the human spirit and interactions between the students and teachers which would make a difference, and which would ensure that the new building supports higher levels of learning,” she said.

Representative of the Catholic Education Board, Agnes Murray said that the journey to having the new school was no easy task and that many times during the project, she wanted to give up.

“Ever so often I remember people like Mr Huey Cadette (former THA Education Secretary) … in formulating all of this, there were many times that I wanted to offer him a divorce because he would not come through with the promises, but eventually he did. Every time I see him now I feel moved because he stood the ground and he worked with us and we saw the start of this compound,” she said.

Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles, who is also Secretary of Education, in his address at the event, said that the journey of excellence by the school was now positioned into a new environment with a high degree of comfort, safety and ambience.

Charles told principal, teachers and students that they were now even better poised to not only continue the excellence exemplified by Scarborough RC over the last 67 years but to take the performance to an even higher level.

He noted also that the school was OSHA compliant and easily accessible for the differently abled and was the first of its kind on the island and by extension the country.

The three-story facility consists of 27 classrooms that can accommodate 750 students, a staff room, a computer room, a cafeteria, sick bay, a library, a chapel and an elevator.

“This journey to relocate the school to this location was not without many challenges,” said Charles.

“Many questions arose concerning the origin of the designs, the size of structure, the rooms to be included, the outdoor spaces, the road and the projected cost. While the planning and decision making involved prolonged time, adjustments and reconsiderations, we are at last elated that the agreed structure was completed within time and budget,” he said.