STUDENTS of Aligegeo Secondary School in Malaita have been told to look after and take ownership of their new facilities.
Under Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources (MERHD) James Bosamata uttered this during the handover of two dormitory buildings and two ablution blocks to the school.
“I would like to humbly say to the Malaita Provincial Government, the Malaita Education Authority, the Aligegeo School Board and the Principal and staff and the surrounding communities that this is your school,” Mr Bosamta reiterated.
He said the four components of the project are now formally handed over to the school and are now part of Aligegeo Secondary School.
“You owned the school and of course the building that is handed over to you today,” he added.
He also told students that they are the direct beneficiaries of the facilities and so they should look after and care for the newly built facilities.
“You are the direct beneficiaries of the project, look after and care for the building, threat the dormitories as your homes,” he told the students.
“You are fortunate to have the opportunity to be accommodated in such a modern set of standard design students’ dormitories.”
With the formal handing over of the four components, Aligegeo Secondary now has two new dormitories – one for boys and the other for girls – and two new ablution blocks, one for girls, the other for boys.
The facilities were co-funded by the national government, Australia, and New Zealand at a total cost of $3,173,269.80.
The new facilities are expected to provide an additional 160 boarding spaces for students, thus increase the school’s enrolment capacity.
With the additional boarding spaces, the project has now achieved its main to provide additional boarding facilities for both boys and girls to improve access to senior secondary school.
According to Mr Bosamata, the new facilities are some of the new sets of standard designs developed by the Ministry of Education to improve the quality of facilities to enhance learning.
Mr Bosamata said the achievement was a result of the last National Education Action Plan NEAP 2013-2015 which expired at the end of last year.
By BIRIAU WILSON SAENI
in Auki