THE good news was broken on Wednesday to pupils of White Water Primary School that their school is no longer an annex to Wauna Primary School, but rather it is now an official primary school.

Following a visit from a high-level team from the Ministry of Education in April to assess the delivery of education in the White Water Village, a border community in Region One, several pledges and commitments were made not only to the school but also to the community at large. To date, this visit has borne fruit since many of the commitments made have already been fulfilled.

The latest commitment was the gazetting of the school. District Education Officer, Mr Marti De Souza, who represented the Regional Education Officer at a simple ceremony, related to the students and teachers that their school was the latest to join the number of ‘independent’ primary schools in the country; they are now officially White Water Primary School, effective May 1, 2018.

He also stated that the Ministry of Education and the Department of Education, Region One is making good on their commitments made to the school. So far, the school has received adequate textbooks; the solar electrification system has been fixed to ensure that technology is used, especially the Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) programme, which is now fully functional; pieces of furniture have been acquired and water filter tanks have been provided with the help of Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) among others.
Bringing more good tidings to the school was Ms Myra Pierre-Moore, Head of the Learning Resource Development Unit. Following through on a request made by the community for a library with relevant materials, Ms Pierre-Moore delivered a number of books and other teaching/learning materials to the school.

She encouraged the teachers and students to make maximum use of the reading and other learning materials, while caring and taking ownership of them.
Also visiting the school was Ms Annis Blair-Craig, a professional librarian who will, in the upcoming days, train not only the librarian/teacher of White Water Primary but also those of other schools in the sub-region in the setting up, organising and collection development of school libraries.