OPPOSITION leader and Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Central, Dr Peter Phillips has hailed this week’s launch of the centre of excellence at Maxfield Park Primary School, which seeks to maximise the learning potential of its students.

Named the Dr Peter Phillips Centre of Excellence, it will see students being exposed to lessons in the arts — music in particular — as a means of supporting their academic endeavours. It will also facilitate students with reading challenges, who will be specially assisted in an adjoining reading area.

Maxfield Park Primary School, one of the nation’s oldest learning institutions, has faced many challenges over the years and today is emerging on a fast track towards academic excellence, a release from Phillips’ office said.

The school has long realised that students in the community have demonstrated a natural penchant for music, and this new effort is to fully harness and nurture this potential.

“I recognised that so many of our children are talented in music, dance, and so, I decided that a centre of excellence would offer them an opportunity to explore their fullest potential. So I turned to Dr Phillips for help,” Principal Beverley Gallimore Vernon said. “Today, Maxfield Park Primary has the facility for the arts and teachers in music and Spanish, and is well on its way to deliver top-quality education for its children,” she added.

Dr Phillips, who has been a key supporter of the institution, assisted in the school realising this dream through donations of the container that houses the facility as well as musical instruments, and said the education of the nation’s children has to be holistic and must include not only the academics, but also the arts.

“The inclusion of music in the curriculum and the extension of the space for dance and the dramatic arts is very useful in the rounded development of the individual. All aspects of life are so important. And for a country that has made its mark on the world in music, we need to give our children all they need to excel,” Dr Phillips said.

He emphasised that the successful education of the nation’s children involves the entire community.

“It is important that we support the efforts of our schools, because it is our intention that every child will get a top-quality primary education, the best-quality secondary education, and move on to the tertiary level or the world of work,” Dr Phillips said.

He pointed out further that the proper education of the nation’s children involves the commitment and support of teachers, parents, communities, the education ministry, as well as private interests working together for the best future for all.