Official opening of Anse Aux Pins Primary School-Celebrating another educational success |01 October 2004

The R18.4 million project gives the school capacity for nearly 1,000 students – 720 in primary and 250 at creche level. Work on the new facility began in 2001 to replace the old school, which was 112 years old at the time.

The new school building consists of 24 primary classrooms and 10 pre-school classrooms, along with a library and rooms for arts and music, computers and dining
Thursday’s opening ceremony drew senior government officials like Minister of Education and Youth Danny Faure, as well as opposition leader Wavel Ramkalawan, education officials and parents, who were taken through a programme of songs, poems and speeches to mark the school’s opening.

Headteacher Merna Chetty said students and teachers had been waiting for a long time leading up to the school’s completion, noting that construction activities near existing classes brought both bothersome noise and safety concerns.

Ms Chetty said the new facility would provide a better environment for learning, and that fencing around the school would also provide an added level of security, as travellers on foot used to pass through the old school grounds, which the public regarded as a right of way.

She called on students to “cultivate as much as possible from what this school has to offer.”

Yves Choppy, the director for project implementation in the Ministry of Education and Youth, said the lengthy construction period was due to the project having four phases, which involved constructing sections of the school at different times so that students could move into classrooms soon after they were built.

Allied Builders was given the contract to erect the new facility. The old Anse Aux Pins school, which was at one point known as St Michael, was actually built by the Roman Catholic Church.

Minister Faure, addressing the audience during the ceremony, said the school’s opening “represents one of the many proud and joyful occasions when all partners having a stake in the education of our young generation find themselves coming together…to share in and celebrate another of our educational achievements.”

He said the best way forward to remove “inequalities of possibilities” was to invest in education, and pledged to “continue to build the capacity of teachers and assist them to be more effective.”

The minister also called on all partners in education to “strengthen our beliefs, renew our convictions and pledge our support to be proactive in our respective roles in providing the best for our dear children.”

He then officially inaugurated the school by unveiling a plaque located on one of the school’s central pillars, before its 812 students made a pledge to safeguard the school.