PRATVILLE, Manchester — Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern Peter Bunting is calling on bauxite/alumina company Jamalco to do a legacy project at the Winston Jones High School in optoelectronics and drone technology.

“I often speak stridently about the impact of bauxite mining in southern Manchester… I know that [Pratville] has suffered over the past years, if you took at aerial shot of this school, you would see that Winston Jones [High] is an island surrounded by a sea of mining and constantly suffering from the dust and even in the rehabilitation phase, they continue to do so,” Bunting said on Wednesday during the school’s 50th anniversary celebration launch.

“I really want to use the opportunity to call on Jamalco to ensure that they leave a legacy project and put in, for example, an optoelectronics [the study and application of electronic devices and systems that source, detect, and control light] lab, a drone lab, something that speaks to the jobs of the future that are being created.

At Winston Jones, it would be a fine legacy project to leave something in the community to compensate for what has been extracted over many years,” he said.

Bunting, who previously served as the MP for Manchester Central, said he has long lobbied for communities impacted by bauxite mining to get a fair share of lucrative industry through community projects particularly in education.

“I do this in a sense of partnership and I hope that is how we will proceed…If not by partnership then by insistence that some proper legacy projects are left in Manchester from the mining and vast value that has been extracted over many years,” added Bunting.

He urged students to not limit their potential and pledged to continue pushing the technological development of Winston Jones High.

“It is an important institution within this constituency and the quality of our school will have a direct bearing on the strength of our communities and ultimately on the development of our country.

“In my first month as MP, I brought the drones in schools tour to Winston Jones High, Pratville Primary, New Forest High and New Forest Primary.

I have to expose students to what the new career opportunities will look like,” said Bunting..

He lauded the leadership at the school for moving the institution in the right direction.

“Fifty years after this institution opened its door, Winston Jones High stands as part of a legacy,” he said.

Parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Education Senator Marlon Morgan also credited the leadership at the school for steering students towards the right path.

“We want you [students] to be creators and innovators in your own right and that is why the programme of offerings here at Winston Jones High should be grasped with both hands,” said Morgan.

He said the school is on the Ministry of Education’s Priority 2 list following the passage of Hurricane Melissa almost a year ago, but did not give a timeline for repairs works to commence at the school.