COME September, the Union Gardens community, which is bordered by Spanish Town Road to the north and Marcus Garvey Drive to the south, will have a state-of-the-art early childhood education school.

The school, which will be called the Union Gardens Infant School, will be built by the Union Gardens Foundation on approximately 11,000 square feet of designated lands in the St Andrew South Western constituency, near the Tinson Pen Aerodrome, using the basic planning standards for early childhood institutions prepared by the Early Childhood Commission of Jamaica (ECC).

It will house 150 students aged three to six and, like Evelyn Mitchell.

School in Clarendon, transportation will be provided to take the children to and from school.

Physical features of the school will include covered walkway-linked building with play areas, adjoining semi-enclosed teaching areas and landscaped common areas, gentle steps and ramps to facilitate general ease of movement, including the physically challenged, and an administrative block. There will also be an auditorium with an alternative independent access for members of the community and shaded interior spaces to utilise natural light and ventilation, trained teachers, no school fees, free hot lunches daily and extra-curricular activities sponsored by various private sector entities.

The project, headed by Glen Christian, chairman of the foundation who is also CEO/chairman of Cari-med and Kirk Distributors Ltd, will replicate the design and process of the Evelyn Mitchell Infant School/Centre of Excellence in Top Hill, Clarendon.

Speaking at the project launch, Christian said that the project, following on the heels of the success of the Evelyn Mitchell Infant School, will bring to Kingston and St Andrew a model school for early childhood education.

“We built a school in Clarendon and, after we looked at its success, we said we wanted to do something in early childhood education in that area. We wanted to do a homework centre, but after my team visited the community we readily recognised that a basic school; was needed. After further deliberations, we said an infant school and the difference is that an infant school is owned and managed by the Ministry of Education, where teachers are paid and the children get a hot meal and expenses are taken care of.

“The basic school as mentioned starts in the community where there is a need or community leader. It was agreed on and we decided that what we had seen in Clarendon — the success of the Evelyn Mitchell Infant School/Centre of Excellence opened in 2010, should be replicated in Union Gardens,” he said.

Architect Mark Taylor explained that through planning, and how the spaces are organised, the building and its environment will be cost-effective and child-friendly.

“At Evelyn Mitchell the classrooms open into an outdoor teaching space and with this school a semi-enclosed teaching area will be adjoined, each classroom will have its own adjunct play area, own bathrooms and there will be an auditorium and storage spaces for water storage and collection,” he said.

Education Minister Ronald Thwaites said the project was an opportunity to modernise the early childhood education.

“Fifty per cent of schools are either owned or sponsored by churches. We now have an opportunity to modernise early childhood education and create new school to improve inadequate schools,” Thwaites said.

He added that by 2017, every early childhood institution will have a trained teacher.

Prime Minister and Member of Parliament for the South West St Andrew South Western Portia Simpson Miller said that the project is in keeping with the mantra of the Ministry of Education’s early childhood theme to ‘start them right and make them bright’ and will uplift the community.

“In each face I see promise, and in each pair of eyes I see a future. I know that each one with the right opportunity can go far. Projects like this demonstrate how public private partnerships can truly transform communities and ultimately our nation. The people of South West St Andrew will never forget what you’re doing for the children in our constituency and the community,” Simpson Miller said.

Meanwhile, the foundation expressed thanks to their various donors. These include platinum sponsors — Cari-med & Kirk Distributors Foundation and National Baking Company; gold sponsors — The Musson Group, Sandals Foundation, Kingston Wharves Limited, Stewart Industrial, CHASE Fund; sliver sponsors — Jamaica National Building Society, BH Paints, Arc Manufacturing, Delta Supplies and bronze sponsor — Advanced Integrated Systems.

Moreover, Gary ‘Butch’ Hendrickson, director of the foundation and chairman of the National Baking Company said the foundation was taking the first tiny steps to providing a model of what can be possible for all our children with the right public-private sector partnership.

“There is a greater vision that we all share. It is our hope that this project will help focus attention on the needs of early childhood education that we can give all our children the best chance for a successful academic future.”