Brown’s Town High benefiting from HEART programme

While schools are expected to resume on October 5, preparations are being made to accommodate the new way of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. One such entity aiding with the preparation of the upcoming school year is Brown's Town High School.

The institution, located in St Ann, is one of the four participants in a project with the Ministry of Education, where they have been commissioned to manufacture desks and chairs for schools in Region 3 of the ministry.

The project started in June and principal Albert Thomas says the school was selected based on its exceptional performance, as he describes it, in the Comprehensive School Furniture Repair Programme, which started in 2012.

"We were previously on the furniture repair programme with the ministry," he said. "Under this new programme, we have about eight students, three teachers, and three other labourers."

Thomas said since sharing the school's inclusion in the project on social media, he has seen positive feedback. He said that students are also able to benefit from the programme.

"We offer exposure to the students," he said. "They basically get to have on-the-job experience. Students involved in the project do machine shop, welding, and those who do furniture making. When I published the information on the Facebook page, we got a lot of traction and we had a lot of persons commenting positively on the programme, so it has brought attention to the school."

The students referred to by Thomas are those are enrolled in the HEART/NSTA Trust NCTVET programme.

Unattached youth programme

"We have up to grade 11 doing NCTVET Level 1, then we have our CAP programme where the students will do the Level 2 programme, and we are also one of the centres that do the Unattached Youth programme. So the community members can apply for the unattached youth programme and level 2 programmes," he explained.

The Ministry of Education provided the necessary resources and funding to start the project, as the school furniture is built from scratch. So far, the team at the Brown's Town High School has made 600 desks and chairs.

"We would have been provided with the resources to kick-start the programme, so our industrial arts and furniture making departments have benefited from additional tools and equipment," he said.

Thomas says the refurbishing programme will not be undertaken this year, as the current manufacturing programme has occupied most of their time. He said that the school has received a quota and is working to meet that quota by the end of this financial year.