Stone laying for Mont Fleuri primary school-Government committed to equality in education, says director |24 March 2008

The director for schools, Odile Octave, said this on Thursday during a stone laying ceremony for Mont Fleuri primary school, where government is spending R21 million to build new classrooms and modern facilities, increasing the capacity of the school which now has 733 pupils by 25%.

The project is being undertaken by China State Construction, and by 2010 the school will have additional classrooms and streams for both primary crèche pupils.

It was Education Minister Bernard Shamlaye, the school’s headteacher Marie-Therese Elizabeth and pupil Jean Yve Jean Charles who laid the foundation stone in the presence of guests who included Mont Fleuri member of National Assembly Jean-Francois Ferrari.

Construction has in fact already begun, and the over-30 year-old buildings will progressively be demolished as pupils occupy the new facilities in a manner designed to pose minimum distractions to learning.

“The government is committed to providing our children with the best possible facilities that the country can afford to permit them to develop their potential to the fullest.

“It also delineates the essence of the principle of equity and equality of opportunity that our ministry values profoundly.

Resources are equitably distributed, infrastructure built or renovated regardless of the distance or size of a school community,” Mrs Octave said in the speech she delivered before the stone laying, which was also preceded by poems, songs and dances offered by the school’s pupils.