With the addition of three new classrooms, Donald Quarrie High School in St Andrew is now closer to becoming a single-shift institution.

The new classrooms, built at a cost of $12 million, represent 20 per cent of what the school needs to be taken off the double shift system.

Speaking at the official opening ceremony last Tuesday, Education Minister Ronald Thwaites gave a commitment to provide funding for the building of additional classrooms at the school in the 2016/17 fiscal year.

“Donald Quarrie is on a move to become a full-day single-shift school and I commend those who have made it possible to add three new bright classrooms to the campus,” he said.

“The Ministry of Education will do everything possible to ensure that in next year’s financing, there is space for a block of classrooms here that will take you closer to the single-shift and put away the double-shift system,” the minister added.

He said the ministry will continue to work with international partners to seek grant funding, which will further assist in upgrading and improving schools across the island.

Thwaites said that funds to upgrade the school’s workshops and science laboratories will be placed in the ministry’s capital budget.

He encouraged the students and teachers to take care of the facilities and to strive for excellence.

“It is indeed a time for new beginnings here at Donald Quarrie… live up to the name that your school is called. Donald Quarrie gained lustre for himself and Jamaica, not by doing something on his own, not by being selfish in his talents, but by training and working towards a goal,” Thwaites said of the former Jamaican track and field athlete, who is regarded as one of the world’s top sprinters during the 1970s and in whose honour the school was dedicated in 1977.

Quarrie, who mined sprint gold in the Commonwealth and Pan American games in the 1970s, won the prestigious 200 metres gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. He also won the 100m silver medal at those same Olympic Games. In total, Quarrie competed in five Olympic Games and won four Olympic medals during his career.

Last week, Thwaites urged students at the school to “value and treasure” their education, pointing out that unlike previous years, all high school students now have a place in a five-year school.

The minister challenged the students to excel in the core subjects of English, Mathematics, the sciences and in technical areas.

“Look for those technical areas, the vocational areas where you can take not only CSEC but City and Guilds and NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) exams, because those are the qualifications that will help you to get a job (and) will help you to qualify for higher training,” he said.

For his part, Principal Talbert Weir said that architectural and engineering drawings have been concluded for the construction of an additional 21 classrooms, seven of which are to be built and ready for September 2016.

Board Chairman Christopher Burgess thanked the people who helped in the construction of the classrooms.

— JIS