Parents of students from Union Island will have the choice of whether they want their children attending school on Union Island or on mainland St. Vincent.
This is according to Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who was at the time speaking on WE FM’s Issue At Hand program.
He said that there are not currently exact figures as to how many take part in schooling in either location but noted that the Ministry of Education will make forms available to parents so that they can indicate their decision.
“We have about 450 primary and secondary school students and 25 early childhood and focusing immediately on the secondary and primary. As you know the policy of the government, we will accommodate parents who want to keep their students in Union Island and those who want to have them be educated in St. Vincent. We don’t know the numbers yet, but for each place, the Ministry of Education is doing the analysis and would be giving forms to parents to say where they want their children to be educated whether in the immediate term, months, maybe for the whole academic year.” Dr. Gonsalves said.
The original plan of the Government was to have all 450 Union Island students attend school on St. Vincent and the former teacher’s college campus in Arnos Vale. However this was met with challenge from Union Island residents, who expressed that they would prefer their children be schooled on island.
Rehabilitative work on both the Arnos Vale facility and the Union Schools are expected to be completed by September 2nd 2024.
