MORE than JA$42 million is being spent to renovate and expand the Yallahs Basic School and Resource Centre in St Thomas. Work began in July and is expected to be completed by December this year.

The project falls under the Ministry of Education and Youth’s Enhancement of Basic Schools Project (EBSP) that is jointly funded by the Government and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) at a cost of US$15 million.

Under the EBSP, launched in March 2003, 23 basic schools and resource centres will be built and renovated, islandwide.

All schools will receive furniture, computers, printers, televisions and VCRs as well as outdoor and indoor play equipment and other instructional materials.

The project will also undertake the training of early childhood education practitioners to HEART Trust/National Council of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET) Levels two and three, while early childhood officers will be trained as NCTVET assessors.

EBSP project manager Keith Samuda said work so far included the renovation of the Manchester Resource Centre in Mandeville. He said that the project, in collaboration with the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund and the Dudley Grant Trust, had equipped the centre with furniture, computers as well as teaching and learning materials.

Samuda, who was speaking at the ground breaking ceremony for the Yallahs project at the Yallahs Baptist Church Hall on Wednesday, noted that the Hope Village Basic School at Williamsfield in Manchester was currently being built.

As soon as that is complete, he said other works would be undertaken. Beneficiaries will include:

. the DRB Grant Basic School and the St James Resource Centre in Montego Bay; as well as

. the Stephen James Basic School and the Trelawny Resource Centre in Trelawny.

“The approval process for both sites is at different stages of completion, but work is scheduled to commence before the end of fiscal year 2006/07,” the project manager said.

The project, he added, was currently assessing 680 practitioners and 81 early childhood officers who were certified through NCTVET. At the same time, he said that two participants were offered fellowships to pursue career development courses at the George Brown University in Toronto, Canada next summer.

Meanwhile, he appealed to parents and community members not to allow vandals to damage the building and to continue to support the staff and programmes at the Yallahs Basic School and Resource Centre.

School principal, Eleanor Gayle said it was good to have the school upgraded and a plus for offerings in early childhood education.

“It’s a wonderful feeling. I think it’s the best thing the government has done to work on early childhood because children are molded at the early childhood stage,” she said. “If they should build more schools like this, we would have better students in the society.”

She added that teachers at Yallahs were looking forward to the completion of the renovation work at her institution. The improvement, she said, would allow them to be better monitors and supervise the children occupying separate classrooms in the new building.

Currently, the students and six teachers at the school have been occupying the Yallahs Baptist Church Hall.