The government has mixed pupils from Calibishie Primary School and Woodford Hill Primary School together in one school. Due to the proposed reconstruction to take place at the Calibishie Primary School, students from the school were joined to those in Woodfood Hill Primary School for the new academic year.
According to Education Minister Octavia Alfred, pupils from both primary schools will be housed together for the first term only. She noted that given that the total population of students and staff from Calibishie is about 50, adding them to the population of Woodford Hill for the first term should pose no problems in any way. She added that both school populations can sit together for classes without the need for a shift system.
We moved the Calibishie Primary School to Woodford Hill while we prepare proper accommodations for the Calibishie students. It is a small group, just over 40 and both schools have small groups. If the school populations were bigger, we would have gone on a shift system; but because the schools can be accommodated in the same building, we are glad that can happen. I think it is something that works.
Hon. Octavia Alfred, Minister of Education
While appreciating Calibishie teachers and parents for agreeing to move to Woodford Hill, Alfred said some of the Woodhill Hill teachers live in Calibishie already and that there are buses to convey teachers and students from one community to the other.
We are just grateful that we have this accommodation and we have the busses to bring the children over. The Calibishie children, they moved with their teachers, their furniture, their cooks, their cleaners and all their officers; some of the people who teach at Woodford Hill are from Calibishie so it is not a completely strange environment for the students.
Hon. Octavia Alfred, Minister of Education
The education minister disclosed that the reconstruction of the Calibishie Primary School will be funded by the Chinese government. She said facility design and funding are available, and that final points are being ironed out before project implementation. The new principal of Woodford Hill Primary School, Ursuline Benjamin, thanked the government for the initiative and promised to make the population from Calibishie comfortable in their new environment.
Meanwhile, UWP Senator Clement Marcellin has voiced his concerns that students are returning to classrooms with the same COVID-19 safety and health regulations in place. He said the pandemic is over in Dominica and that students shouldn’t be subjected to nose-masks, handwashing, and social distancing anymore. And UWP deputy political leader, Senator Francisca Joseph, condemned the government for enabling students to attend school for only two days in one week when they could have attended for the whole week.
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