Government Commits $310 Million to Rebuild St Elizabeth Technical High School

The Government has set aside $310 million to reconstruct and fortify St. Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) in Santa Cruz. Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, revealed the figure while speaking at the school's graduation ceremony on June 25, held under the theme "Through Challenges We Rise: Embracing Resilience and Achieving Success."

Dr. Morris Dixon said the STETHS allocation forms part of a wider multibillion-dollar push to restore more than 400 schools islandwide that were hit when category-five Hurricane Melissa moved across Jamaica in October last year.

"We have 400 schools that have been damaged across Jamaica and all of them we are trying to build back at the same time. You know, that's a very difficult feat; it's very hard," she told the gathering.

On the Santa Cruz campus, contractors will overhaul the male and female dormitories with reinforced concrete roof slabs and extra supporting columns to improve structural stability against future storms. The damaged teachers' cottage and the principal's residence are also being upgraded. The grade-11 block will get reinforced purlins beneath new 24-gauge industrial roof sheeting. Additional strengthening works will be carried out across the site to help buildings withstand high winds, heavy rainfall and other extreme weather.

Dr. Morris Dixon also disclosed that STETHS will host Jamaica's first high-school mechatronics and robotics laboratory when students return in September. The advanced facility is tied to a $400-million Ministry investment, funded through the HEART/NSTA Trust, to boost technical and vocational education and training (TVET) at technical high schools across the island.

"We believe that our students at STETHS, or any of the other technical high schools in Jamaica, must have the best technology at their fingertips," the Minister said.

Turning to the graduating class, Dr. Morris Dixon urged them to reflect the resilience being built into their school's infrastructure. She noted that life brings setbacks and disappointment but encouraged students to keep pressing forward and to see closed doors not as failure but as redirection.