FOOD for the Poor (FFP) Jamaica has handed over a smart new home to Steerfield Basic School in St Ann, bringing an end to the school’s 12 years of sub-standard learning conditions.

This is the first early childhood educational institution to be built in the parish under the FFP Jamaica 50 Programme, which seeks to build and upgrade 50 basic schools islandwide, in commemoration of Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of Independence.

The gift provides much needed facilities for a school community, which had been struggling for years to serve its children in unsuitable quarters at the Steerfield Community Centre.

Steerfield Basic School is the tenth early childhood educational institution to be constructed / upgraded under the FFP Jamaica 50 Programme.

Addressing participants at last Thursday’s official opening of the new building, Jacqueline Johnson, executive director, FFP Jamaica, said it is the charity’s belief that every Jamaican child deserves the opportunity to gain quality education from the earliest stage in his or her learning career.

“We are also deeply committed to the principle that this quality education should be easy to access,” she said. “We contend that the facilities housing these learning opportunities should be safe, comfortable, hygienic, and pleasant. They should enhance teaching and learning rather than making it any more challenging than it needs to be.”

The 30 children, three to six years old, currently enrolled at Steerfield Basic School will be enjoying three beautifully decorated classrooms with cheerful, child-friendly furniture. The new school building also features a kitchen, bathroom facilities, office, sick bay and verandah.

The FFP team merged four single units, on a strong concrete foundation, to produce this structure.