Six-classroom block commissioned at Rhodes Hall High
Published:Monday | May 30, 2022 | 12:22 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE OVER 600 students and staff at Rhodes Hall High School in western Hanover will now have their teaching and learning experience in a more comfortable setting, as a new block of six classrooms, constructed at a cost of approximately $35 million, was officially commissioned into operation at that facility on Friday.
The project was done solely through the self-help efforts of the school community under the astute leadership of the founding principal, Loreen Aljoe, while the Ministry of Education assisted by providing the architectural drawings for the building and other technicalities associated with adding to an already-existing school plan.
The school, which started operation in 2006 with a mere 156 students, has seen its population quadrupled over the years, which led to a shortage of space and facilities, hence the need for the additional classrooms. Work on the project commenced in 2020 under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic across the island, but with the perseverance of all concerned, it is now complete and has opened its doors to the school family.
Addressing the official commissioning of the new classroom block, named in honour of the outgoing principal, the Loreen Aljoe Block, Regional Director in the Ministry of Education and Youth for Region Four, Dr Michelle Walden-Pinnock, lauded the visionaries who conceptualised and saw to the implementation of the project.
She noted that they have created a legacy which will further create pathways to success for future generations.
Turning her focus on students at the institution, Walden-Pinnock implored them to visualise the new structure as one of possibilities and potential, because others spent time to prepare it in their interest.
“Students of Rhodes Hall High School, know that the permanent things of life, whether it is a relationship, success or excellence, all require time – time to prepare, to re-craft, to re-evaluate as you hold faithfully to the promise of a bright future,” she stated.
Addressing stakeholders and the wider community served by the school, the regional director argued that the world is now going through a Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is adding to the dynamism of the future, while causing a lot of uncertainties about what will be happening in careers and professions over the next 10 years.
She used the sport of soccer, and the introduction of technology in the officiating of that sport through the use of the video assistant referee, as a prime example of how technology will lead to changes in the future, as she reflected on how things are done.
“We will need to have the will to retool and re-engineer our future as we try to exist in a fast-paced, ever-changing present,” she stated.
She argued that life will present high and low points, adding that individuals must learn to cope and survive.
“Decide today to take the low times and the high times, the good and the bad, in order that we can create structures such as we are opening today,” Walden-Pinnock stated. “We have to look for the positives, we have to find the potentials, and we have to invest time and energy into creating the future,” she said.