By Petrina Francis, Education ReporterDANIEL THOMAS, the top performing boy in the region in the 2004 Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) science examinations, has become a major drawing card for his school, Ardenne High. So much so that the school will now be receiving assistance from the National Commercial Bank (NCB) to build a new science wing valued at $30 million.
Addressing a press briefing on Tuesday at NCB's Trafalgar Road head office, Michael Lee-Chin, chairman of the bank, disclosed that his partnership with the school began when he heard of Daniel's achievement.
Mr. Lee-Chin said that he called the school to congratulate Daniel, who is also The Gleaner's 2001 Spelling Bee champion, when the principal informed him that she needed assistance to raise $30 million for a new science wing for the institution.
The NCB chairman said that he partnered with the principal and decided that for every dollar that the school raised, NCB would match it, with a maximum of $15 million.
Esther Tyson, principal of Ardenne, said she was grateful for Mr. Lee-Chin's assistance, noting that "at Ardenne we pride ourselves on being a school which produces well rounded students".
PERFORMING BETTER AT THE SCIENCES
The principal added that in the last few years, students have been performing better at the sciences and that there has been an increase in the number of students wanting to do science subjects at CXC and A'levels.
Ms. Tyson, however, noted that "what has been happening is that because our science labs basically are the same labs that they had when I was a student in the 60's to the 70's... and we have tripled our population...we have had to be sending students to other schools to do A'level sciences".
Mrs. Tyson said that "we do not want this to continue to happen and that is why we are on the drive to ask anyone who can help us to build our science lab because this can only better Jamaica as a nation".
The new science wing will comprise six labs, three classrooms and one lecture theatre and is scheduled to be completed by April.
