World Bank & CDB Officials Satisfied with the Implementation of the BERP

Contact: Dana Augustin

Monday, October 23, 2000 - Representatives from the World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank, affiliated to the Basic Education Reform Project (BERP) in Saint Lucia, have reviewed the life of the five-year-old project that officially comes to an end on October 31. This took place at a recent meeting with education officials.

So far all stakeholders in the project are very pleased that it has achieved a number of significant goals that it set out to. The major components that were reviewed include institutional strengthening, sector planning, improved quality of basic education and increased access to education at the secondary level.

Ancilla Armstrong, Education Specialist and Task Manager to the project from the World Bank said the project has been satisfactorily implemented. "Significant achievements have been made in the area of sector planning. We also found significant achievements with respect to increased capability to assess the performance of students throughout the school system and the financial management of the project has also been very good," she noted.

Within the last three years, four secondary schools namely the Anse Ger, Babonneau and Piaye Secondary and a replacement for the old Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School, were constructed as a result of the Basic Education Reform Project. Each new school has created an additional five hundred and twenty five secondary school places and the replacement Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School boasted an expanded capacity.

Although this project is at its tail end, Education Minister Honourable Mario Michel gave the assurance that the reform process will continue. "We have already negotiated with implementing a BERP 2 project, which CDB will be working with us on. That will have various elements including the new primary school to be constructed to de-shift the Ave Maria and RC Boys Primary Schools and the construction of a technical/vocational institute at Ciceron. All of these elements will come under BERP 2," Mr. Michel said.

Desmond Durant, the CDB Project Officer and Supervisor for the project reiterated the importance of strengthening the technical/vocational sector and outlined some areas of training that BERP 2 will strengthen within the schools. These include building technology, electronics and auto mechanics. The CDB and STABEX will be major facilitators in terms of providing the equipment and training for teachers in these technical areas.

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