GREEN ISLAND, Hanover — Following years of advocacy and waiting, Lyssons School of Success in St Thomas has been gazetted, paving the way for it to access benefits that come with that designation.

It has also been renamed Ena Barclay Academy of Excellence in honour of the former principal of the nearby Lyssons Primary School who is a past president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA).

Barclay has over the years worked tirelessly with the Ministry of Education’s Region Two and other entities to create the school for children with special needs.

“I am feeling very happy and proud to know that my work has not gone unnoticed… I haven’t been working for recognition but whenever it comes you accept it with humility and just continue to do what you have to do to help others in the profession and the children,” Barclay told the Jamaica Observer Thursday.

On Wednesday, Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon held up the gazetting of the school as an example of a responsive Government. She said there had been advocacy by JTA President Mark Malabver and the school’s principal, Jacqueline Hendricks.

“I am listening to you, and I am responding as best as I can,” she said on the final day of the JTA’s 61st Annual Conference that was held at Princess Grand Jamaica Hotel in Green Island, Hanover.

Speaking of Barclay’s role in bringing the school “to reality” the minister said renaming the school in her honour was fitting.

Lyssons School of Success was one of three non-gazetted educational institutions mentioned during last August’s JTA conference in Trelawny.

In making the point that a number of schools had been gazetted in recent times, then Minister of Education Fayval Williams said three were left to be done. She identified them as Nain and Aberdeen high schools in St Elizabeth, along with Lyssons School of Success.

On Wednesday, Morris Dixon said other schools that require gazetting are being looked at.

“Our legal team knows it’s a priority, and we’re going to be working to gazette all of the schools. It’s been going on for too long, and we need to fix it,” she said.

“It is not fair to our schools that are operating in good faith. And so, the gazetting of schools is an urgent matter for me,” added Morris Dixon, who was appointed minister in October 2024.