THERE are hardly words to describe the joy Nation Builders Development Centre’s p rincipal Lois Hamilton Forester felt after learning earlier this year that her school would be getting a new bathroom, courtesy of a few University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica students.

At the handover ceremony last week, Hamilton Forester said she was elated when she found out that UTech would be renovating the bathroom.

“When we found out that UTech was coming on board to create the bathroom for us, we were elated,” the principal of the six-year-old school said. “As I said to one [UTech] student, for you this is a project and for us this is an answered prayer [and] it’s a blessing, because where the bathroom is, we didn’t have a bathroom. We needed a bathroom that could facilitate the number of students that we now have,” she stated.

Adding that the school’s vision is to ensure that each child “develops according to his God-given purpose”, Hamilton graciously thanked the UTech theme for their hard work in completing the project.

“Thank you all. Words cannot express how grateful I am. It is with great pleasure that I extend a big thank you to the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies, and in particular the department of Industrial Technology in the School of Technical and Vocational Education. I must say that determination can bring you a far way, and when the project came up I said to myself ‘Let it be us.’ Initially it seemed very dim and it seemed as if it wasn’t us, but it was us, and I am really, really elated today,” she stated.

Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies at UTech, Dr Dean Reid, the individual responsible for spearheading the project, told the Jamaica Observer that despite the project costing over $1 million he ensured its completion, as both parties would eventually benefit from it.

“We try to give our students some practical exposure. We believe in education and community service. I am happy with what we are seeing and I can say the future is bright, not just for education, but for technical education in Jamaica. It cost us a little over $1 million. It’s a twofold thing — the school ends up with a nice bathroom facility and our students get the practical exposure. We did plumbing, we did electrical work, we did some construction principles, and so everybody got a touch of what happens in the industry,” Reid commented.

Continuing, Reid explained that the Nation Builders Development Centre was chosen because it caters to students with learning disabilities and it needed assistance.

“The school was special to us because the school caters to students with learning disabilities. When we went and we looked at their facility, they were not up to par and we couldn’t do everything but we looked at their bathroom facility. And so, we decided that we are going to take on the task of renovating their bathroom facility and actually creating something nice for them,” he said.

Further stating that the project lasted approximately four months, Reid noted that money was received from students’ donations, company sponsorships and the university.

Electrical technologist at UTech, Timarley Tulloch, who has been working on similar projects since 2019, said he was happy with the work that was done at Nation Builders Development Centre.

“I like this project and I think we should give back more to schools [because] a lot of schools don’t have the resources and the manpower that’s needed to build these bathrooms. My students also enjoyed this project and I was limited to the amount of students I could carry at a time, and more students wanted to participate,” Tulloch stated.

In addition, second-year student at UTech and Project Manager Ricardo Panther told the Sunday Observer that being responsible for overseeing the daily operation of the project, as well as participating in the construction of the bathroom, has provided personal development for him.

“I was responsible for overseeing the project and administering different roles to persons on the team, such as financial coordinator, secretary and accountant. Basically, I was in charge of the daily running of any work that needed to be done to get the project completed. I [also] did some physical work,” Panther said.

He continued: “I’ve done some tiling, even though I had no prior experience. I mixed cement as well. It was exciting even though it was tiresome. It was an experience I can look back on and say it was something that I needed personally, because it not only developed me as a manager but also to do some physical work whenever that is presented.”

Another UTech student and assistant project manager, Damion Dunn stated, “When we first came here it [bathroom] was an empty space. We [did] the partition, the tiling, the rendering, block-laying and also the cabinetry. Upon [the principal] receiving it, she was blown away,”

Dunn also expressed that, “Not because we are aspiring educators, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a skill. All the students working on this project are aspiring educators and they have a skill. Some of the students had no experience in this and I didn’t hesitate to impart my knowledge.”