Papine High School on Gordon Town Road. -Norman Grindley photoAT LEAST one school principal has expressed fears that even as the Secondary Enhancement Funds from the Education Ministry has been a welcome relief for many needy schools, they may be drying up.
"The problem is that the money dwindles every year. I've noticed that for the first year of the programme the amounts were more, up to $8 million, this year the maximum is $5 million," one principal said.
He said further complications had come as persons tried to make the best use of the funds.
"Inflation has eaten out much of the money. For example we had set aside $2 million for stocking our library, but we have had to cut into that so that now re-stocking will have to be an ongoing process," he said.
But Adelle Brown, chief education officer at the Education Ministry, has dismissed this suggestion.
"It (fund available) is not elastic and in fact this year we have actually got more," she said.
Ms. Brown said that the programme has been helpful to some schools which were unable to attempt improvement projects "even with subventions and costsharing".
With regard to the widespread need for help, Ms. Brown said the aim was to "ultimately (assist) all the upgraded schools". The allocations, however, were "based on the economy and the Budget".
"It's a fantastic programme and some persons must be commended on how well they have utilised the funds," she said.
Cynthia Peart, principal of the Papine High School in Gordon Town, says the school received an $8 million grant which was carved up to meet the school's most pressing needs.
"It was a one-shot effort for us meaning that we wouldn't be receiving funds every year, in fact we were recommended for the programme so we tried to use it wisely. So, for example, we made our purchases ourselves, didn't use any middle men so we didn't have to pay anybody else.
"We used expertise from inside where we could, didn't use a contractor, and we got a lot of technical help from areas like the Media Services unit, UTech and VDTI. An extension to that arrangement is that UTech is now continuing to assist our reading programme and is refurbishing our reading room."
