Kenica Francis
The students of Princess Margaret School (PMS) are the beneficiaries of $10,000 worth of lab equipment, courtesy of a donation made by the West Indies Oil Company (WIOC) yesterday.
“We here at Princess Margaret are so grateful,” remarked Kanter Rawlins-Charles head of the school’s Science Department, adding that the donation will allow more participation among smaller groups of students.
“There’s been a struggle with the equipment. The children have had to be working in groups. Group work is good, but often we find that where we want children to work individually, they’re forced to work in groups,” she explained.
According to Rawlins-Charles, teachers often would have to demonstrate their experiments because they simply did not have enough equipment.
“The school has nearly 1,000 children and every child does a science subject, whether it’s biology, chemistry, physics — the single sciences — or integrated science. So, with that population of children, it has been very challenging actually doing practicals with the children.”
The equipment has already been placed in the school’s laboratory where students will learn hands-on practical skills that can assist them to complete their School Based Assessments (SBAs).
This type of donation will be replicated in other neighbouring schools like the Antigua Girls’ High School and the Antigua Grammar School, according to Drucella JnoBaptise WIOC’s Marketing and Business Development Officer.
“As a company as a whole we have a strategic objective and we wanted to do so by investing in the education of our young people,” she said.